The code
by RoseStoneM
Summary: Post wreck the halls 3x11. Tim and Paige have broken up and she is decided to fix things with Walter once and for all, but before the truth comes out an old enemy makes appearance again, and nothing makes sense until she decodes the only clue to figure out what's going on. Title changed from The note to the code.
1. Prologue

**I know I haven't been writing for the longest time, but this was going around in my head and I couldn't take it after I watched 3x10. I will finish my other fanfics (someday), but right now all my imagination is going to Waige, I can't help it, they are meant to be together!**

 **This is supposed to be a multi-chapter** **pic, but I'm really bad at posting long stuff so it will probably take a long time 'till I finish it.**

 **I hope you like it. Please comment and review!**

 **NOTE: This is post Wreck the halls (3x11) but the episode doesn't come out 'till next week so there's bound to be some inaccuracies.**

It was a day just like any other, there was nothing special about it, except maybe the fact that Paige and Tim had just broken up the day before and she had decided to tell Walter her feelings and stop the ridiculous act they had been doing for months now.

She got into the garage driven and ready, but she encountered Walter's desk was empty. Confused, she stopped. Sylvester realized her presence though, and said good morning to her. She answered absentmindedly while still looking at Walter's desk.

"If you're looking for Walter he took off with his car a couple of minutes ago really fast, he seemed quite worried actually, but he said it was nothing." Sly started to get worried while he narrated the story, Paige could see it in his face. That made her start to worry as well.

"He was doing a pretty weird project, I bet he realized something about it and just went to finish some things." Toby answered calmly. "Scratch that I won't bet that since I'm not gambling anymore. Right sweetie?" He continued when he realized that Happy had been coming closer with a wrench in her hand. "He said he had to pick up some things from a store to continue with his weird thing."

Everyone got to work, Sylvester planing his election to the brim, Happy hacking her motorbike and Toby doing essentially nothing. Paige got to work on all the paperwork that had been left from the last case, with Ralph's kidnaping and all she hand't had the strength to do it yesterday.

A couple of hours later Cabe came with a worried look.

"Hey guys" Everyone looked up but didn't pick up Cabe's look so continued working, except Paige, that realized that there was something wrong. She got up fast and went to Cabe.

"Is everything okay?" At Paige's question everyone realized that there was something off and focused their attention on them.

"Well yes, but I thought that you guys would be more nervous." There wasn't a direct threat, so that was a plus. Everyone stayed put expecting Cabe to elaborate. "Wait, you guys don't know what happened?" Everyone shook their heads in denial. He was about to reply what had happened when he realized that Walter wasn't in the room. "Wait where's Walter?" "He took off a couple of hours ago really fast saying he had to buy some stuff." Replied Sly really fast. Paige could feel the tension oozing of him. "Ok, the thing is…" Cabe looked around with a defeated look and took in big breath before saying. "Collins has escaped the high security prison he was held in." He said it as calm a he could and looked around see the reaction. Paige did the same, since she knew how the geniuses were affected by Collins.

Sylvester showed a face of utter terror, Toby looked surprised and Happy looked pissed as hell while she hit the floor with her wrench.

"What…!? How is that even possible!?" Happy shouted while she went to Cabe angry. "We put him into prison twice and he escaped!?" Came looked at her apologetically while she stomped out of the room followed by Toby who looked as mad as her.

Cabe sighed after they left leaving just Paige and Sly.

"I wanted to tell you all at once but I guess I'll have to tell Walter later."Paige gave Cabe a reassuring smile and nodded, she didn't know what else to do. She was supposed to balance the team, help them understand their emotion but she was a loss about what to do now. Sly talked, breaking her thoughts.

"I don't think you have to" He had walked up to Walter's desk and was watching his screen, while looking worried.

"What do you mean?" Paige asked while she walked up to him to see the screen for herself.

In the screen of Walter's laptop was an e-mail, she was reluctant to read it at first since she felt she was invading his privacy, but when she realized he was reading and official document she didn't hesitate anymore. Cabe had gone up as well to look at the computer and Happy and Toby were coming back, looking like things had calmed down. The agent realized first what that document was.

"That's an e-mail notifying Collins escape of the prison! How did it get here?" He was looking at Sly. He answered, dumbfounded.

"It looks like he had a program that notified him when emails with Collins name in it were sent. He hacked into homeland to see what it was I think."

Everyone stayed silent thinking about that Silvester had just said, when a realization came to Paige.

"Where's Walter!?" Paige took out her phone as fast as she could and called Walter, he didn't answer. Everyone looked at Paige while she said.

"Walter is missing."


	2. Missing

**Okay guys, so here it is! First of all I have to say how overwhelmed I am from the answer I have received for this fanfic. Thanks to everyone who has liked and followed the story so far, please if you like it tell me why with a review, or in the contrary, if you didn't tell me why so I can improve it over time. Also if you have any suggestions I'm open to them.**

 **Another thing is that I have already figured out most of the story and is going to have at least 20 chapters, maybe even 30. I will try to make the chapters long but it depends about how I want to flow the story, I know more or less when each one is going to finish and stuff, so please don't kill me if you find it too short :S I will try to do better!**

 **Way2groovey and MetalKyria, thanks for the nice comments :) bobolovesclyde I know, me too ¬.¬ I just feel they need to finish it once and for all with Collins, even though he's not going to appear so much in the story ;)**

 **My tumblr is .** **com** **if you want to ask me something in general I will answer them**

 **ON A SIDE NOTE: I watched yesterday 3x11 and I ended up a little bit sad. Bad Walter! I feel he has gone back a little bit to how he was at the beginning. I know you and Paige have to be together but don't be such a mean girl! :( I was expecting something along the lines of my fanfic, oh well, I guess we'll have to wait to the end of the season for that to happen TAT**

 **Enjoy, comment and review!**

The garage was silent for a couple of seconds, nobody knew what to do. Usually they would have a plan for a case like that, but without Walter everyone was confused.

"Isn't any way to track Walter?" Cabe's voice broke the silence.

Sly jumped into action, as if he was electrocuted.

"Yes, there is!" He went, sat on Walter's desk and just stayed there. Paige felt something was off.

"What's wrong? Everything okay Sylvester?" She got closer to give him some comfort.

"Oh! Yes, everything is okay." He answered as if he had been daydreaming. "It's just that I don't usually sit here, Walter is very picky about who lets into his personal space." He said nervously.

Sly got to work while everyone watched like it was a movie. Paige could feel the tension oozing from every inch of their bodies while Sylvester worked on the computer. Even Toby was dead silent, a really bad sign. Happy was intensely looking at the screen, like Cabe, who was really focused in it as well.

The liaison didn't know why they were on edge so much, since Walter hadn't been missing for even 24 hours, but she had to admit that the name Mark Collins always brought trouble for everybody. Sly's shout brought paige out of her daydream.

"Yes! I…! Got it?" He shot up with enthusiasm, only to get confused while he stared at the screen. Everyone got closer curiously.

"He's at a diner?" Asked Happy, confused.

Paige though, wasn't. Nobody realised yet, but it was Nemo's Diner, the place she and Walter met for the first time. Just the thought brought tears to her eyes.

"Can you see how long has he been there?" Cabe asked.

"Sure, if he had the GPS open at the time we will know where has he been for the whole day, it will take me a while though, since I'm no Walter." Everyone nodded and occupied themselves with something while waiting. "Occupy" was an overstatement since no one had the energy to do anything. Toby was holding Happy's hand as if holding for dear life, and surprisingly she didn't pull away. Paige looked out on the window with the unfinished paperwork in front of her. She didn't have the strength or the focus to do any of it. Cabe didn't move an inch, he prefered to accompany the stressed guy.

Half an hour passed and Sly was sweating buckets when he announced that he had been able to do it. Everyone almost run over to him.

"It took me a while since he had blocked his GPS signal so one would know where he is, which is rare." "How so?" Asked Paige.

"After his car accident he always leaves it on just in case he disappears again, which means he was missing in purpose."

"Do you know where he went?" Asked Happy stressed.

"Yes, I had to hack his phone, no easy feat since it's Walter's phone, but I have the locations he has been to and for how long." "So…?" Asked Cabe nervously.

Sylvester answered while squinting at the screen. "After he left the garage this morning he went to...the aquarium. He stayed there for half an hour." "The aquarium? Maybe he went fishing." Toby joked. Paige rolled her eyes at him. "Now it's not the time, Toby." "Sorry" He answered quickly while he scurried against Happy, Paige was quite scary at that moment. Sylvester though, was lost in thought. "Maybe he did went fishing." He said to everybody's surprise. "Come again?" Cabe asked looking at him like he had gone crazy.

"Well, yes!" He was pretty excited now. "If he went to the aquarium to pass the time and relax he would have stayed a lot longer, at least a whole hour, since it's how long it would take to see the whole exposition through." Everybody was still looking at Sly like they didn't get it. He sighed. "He was going to a specific spot, maybe to meet somebody." "Can you hack the cameras to see him?" Paige asked hurriedly. "Sure, give me a second." He typed a bunch of commands and a video popped up.

"That's the feed from the time Walter was there." After a couple of seconds of watching the entrance of the aquarium, a familiar silhouette appeared. "Ah! There he is." Sly pointed at him in the screen. He followed the figure through the feed, until it stopped in front of a fish tank. "Just like I thought, he didn't go there to relax and watch the fish, his destination was that fish tank. Which holds...venomous fish of the underworld? That sounds terrifying!" Sylvester jumped a little bit from the computer. Paige couldn't help it but laugh a little bit, he was such a little child sometimes.

"That aquarium holds an amazing large collection of dangerous fish from around the world, it's one of its main attractions." Cabe said. After a startling look from the group he explained. "I use to go there to relax." He said embarrassed. One new trait that no one knew about him. Everyone let out a small laugh, even him.

They continued watching the video, Walter stayed at the same place for 15 minutes and then left, he met with nobody. The group let out a big sigh, but when they were at a loss about what was going on Paige remembered.

"What about the diner?" "What about it?" Happy asked.

"Maybe he met with somebody there." Sly's face lit up at Paige's voice.

"True! Let me see." He pulled a different video, and at image of the diner Paige felt she had gone back in time, when her life wasn't continuous danger.

"Hey! That's Paige's diner!" Toby exclaimed.

"Yes it is." She smiled fondly, remembering their first case together. A moment of silence followed, each one remembering that special case.

"Oh! He's leaving!" Sylvester words made everyone realise that they were still trying to figure out what was Walter doing. They focused on the screen again. "He was apparently alone in the diner." Sly concludes. "Not so fast!" Toby intervened. "Look at that." He pointed at a certain point at the screen. It was a napkin. Everyone looked at him with a "so?" Look, so he elaborated. "There's two napkins, one next to Walter and one in front of him." He paused. "So it means there was somebody with him, but left a long time ago, since the plates have already been cleaned. So..." "Can you find out who it is?" Happy interrupted. Sylvester obliged ignoring Toby, who groaned in the background.

"Damn, I can't, sorry guys." Everybody deflated a little bit. "The feed gets erased after a couple of hours, since there isn't much space in the one camera in the diner." "It's okay Sylvester." Paige patted him on the shoulder. "At least we know where he is."

"Oh yes!" Sly got pumped again. "Let me see where he is." He started to go through the traffic cameras and found him not too far away from where he had lunch with the mysterious person. He parked in a park and they lost sight of him. Everybody stayed alert for a couple of minutes, not knowing what to do. Suddenly a call came through the phone of the garage. Cabe answered it when it had barely ringed once.

"Cabe Gallo here." It was Walter. Cabe positioned the phone in a way everyone could hear it but it was not on speaker so he couldn't hear them.

"Hi, I just wanted to tell you that I'm fine, since I have found out that my phone's GPS had been hacked, I assume you were worried."

"You gave us quite the scare, boy." Paige wanted to talk to him but felt paralyzed as all the tension she had been building up all day was released.

"Sorry about the hacking Walter, that was my fault." Sly intervened. Walter accepted his apology and said that he simply needed time to get his mind of things. Something that really bugged Paige since he would never say that.

Walter said his goodbyes to Cabe with the promise he would be back tomorrow at the garage first thing in the morning.

When Paige had to go pick up Ralph everybody went along, needing some stress-free time. She couldn't stop thinking about what had happened today, everything seemed such a mess that nobody but Walter understood. Realising that she needed some time alone, she asked Sylvester if he could watch Ralph, to what he agreed wholeheartedly, since he needed some fun to relax.

Paige got home still thinking about the whole thing. Everything was a mystery but the thing that bothered her the most was the aquarium. She had gone there before, with Walter and Ralph. They had a great time, and they spent hours talking in front of the same fish tank he had been today while Ralph studied every species of fish that came across them. He would point it out and Walter would give its definition, with its scientific name and everything, it was quite educational. She had been relaxing on her couch for quite some time with the TV on, even though she was not watching it, when someone knocked on the door. It was Walter.

He looked tired and conflicted with himself. She realised when he came to his senses and started to formulate an excuse. But she didn't want any excuses, it had been one hell of a day, and even though she felt totally embarrassed now for spying Walter for no reason except a little bit of paranoia, she wasn't going to let it bother her.

Paige took Walter's arm and dragged him inside, fast. She planted a kiss on his mouth as passionately as she could. He shook from surprise but after a second of accustoming himself, he kissed her with even more passion than her. She took him through the living room kissing the hell out of him, and he complied happily. Paige felt something in the back of her leg, and realised they had reached the ledge of her bed. They stopped for a second to get some air, and they looked into each other's eyes. She couldn't help it, she said what she had wanted to tell him the whole day.

"I love you." It was a whisper, but she knew he heard it when he smiled sweetly and closed the door behind him still looking at her.


	3. Heat

**Okay so I'm pretty late updating :P The thing is that I went away for the holidays to ski so I was writing very slowly, and then I got back to class and I was swamped with my final year project, the only solace has been my writing TAT. Then I got to writing and it became really difficult to finish this chapter for some weird reason. I'm usually good with this kind of chapters, but I had to give it my all to finish it. This is the chapter that introduces the rest of the story, I think of it as the end of the first act of the story (they are 3).**

 **NOTE: I just watched 3x13 and we need more Waige! After what happened in 3X11 it has been weird between them (uderstandibly, since Walter fucked up bad) but 3x12 gave us a really nice scene ;) but instead in this episode they completely evaded the subject. Please get togheter you too! :'(**

 **IMPORTANT: This episode contains pretty sexy stuff so please be warned if you aren't into that kind of stuff.**

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The room was dark, but lit enough that she could see Walter's piercing eyes studying her. He was going to take her, hard, she could see it in his eyes. Paige made the first step, cupping his left cheek with her palm.

"I love you Walter." Her heart was pounding out of her chest, but she ignored it, too enthralled with his look.

"I love you too Paige." Walter said calmly. His confession struck her hard, never imagining he would confess his love, at least not today. The heat in his voice didn't surprise her since she was feeling the same as him. After a few moments that took Paige to recompose herself, Walter kissed her. It wasn't hurried or sloppy, it was a sweet kiss that told her everything he hadn't been able tell her before. She corresponded tha kiss and it gradually transformed into a heated kiss of hunger. Paige opened her mouth to permit Walter entrance, and felt like she was melting while their kiss deepened. Feeling Paige was about to fall, Walter put his arm around her hip and eased her into the mattress. She didn't resist, she lay there, watching as Walter took of his shirt, showing his bare chest. Feeling the necessity to touch it she reached out, and he took her hand and eased it onto his chest.

Paige had imagined countless times how would he feel under her touch, even when she was with Tim, but it was totally different than her fantasies, it feel real. Amazed by the heat his skin was emanating she started to explore his body carefully, not leaving even one inch unexplored. Walter started to do the same as her, carefully taking of her shirt. They started to caress each other, neither one of them believing it could be real.

Paige suddenly heard the noise of a clasp, and realised Walter had unhooked her bra. She let i fall easily and started to take off her pants. Following her movements, Walter took them off as well. Unable to help herself, Paige took off Walter's underwear slowly, savouring each inch the cloth showed as she eased them off his legs. She took off hers next, since he seemed to be too amazed to do anything. They spent at least a couple of minutes watching each other, trying to memorize what they were seeing just in case it was the last time. It was exactly like she had imagined if not better, he looked at her like she was the sun to him, wich flattered her immensely.

Slowly she approached him, afraid it might be a dream, like countless times before, but it wasn't, he was there with him and she felt like flying.

The kisses that followed were the most passionate she had ever had, even with Tim or even Drew. Walter kissed her like she was his oxygen, or the most delicious candy in the world, like he would never grow tired of it and she felt exactly the same way.

Suddenly she started to feel Walter's hands all over her again which in return made her wanting to explore him too. Their hands started to travel lower, finally reaching their objective, and they both gasped at the new contact. Paige started to melt as she felt him explore her carefully, trying not to hurt her, and while she tried to pleasure him as well, she wasn't able to do the same for him for a long time, since it was becoming too much for her. Sensing her closeness, Walter traveled even lower and tasted her. Surprised, she yelped, what made him stop and look that she was okay. When he asesed that she was fine, he continued his exploration, until he found her bundle of nerves and she screamed while she was sent to the moon. When she came down from her high she realised she had been gripping Walter's hair quite tightly, so she quickly let go and apologised quietly while he disappeared in the adjoining bathroom for a few seconds. Paige took that time to recollect her thoughts. She couldn't believe that Walter was rinsing himself in her bathroom naked. The door opened again, Walter came out and rested next to Paige.

"Sorry, Sly would have killed me if I didn't disinfect myself." That comment made Paige laugh a little bit, followed with a soft laugh from him.

Walter got closer to her, what made her realise that he hadn't been able to relieve himself yet. But instead of attacking her, what she expected, he kissed her softly and whispered to her ear how much he cared. The sweetness of the gesture made tears flow in her eyes, but she didn't care, she was in heaven.

What followed were a string of slow deep kisses, neither one of them in a hurry, feeling each other. After at least a couple of minutes they were both feeling it too much to keep the actual pace, so they shifted gears. The heat consumed them, and after careful preparation, Walter and Paige were one. The rest of the night was them getting lost in each other again and again.

It was at least four or five AM, but Paige didn't have the strength to check it. Walter was wrapped up against her, with her head resting on his bare chest drawing little circles with her index finger, just to feel his skin under hers. They were in silence, but not in an awkward way, in a relaxing way, simply feeling each other.

"Thanks Paige." Walter spoke suddenly with a happy, tired voice. She looked up and smiled.

"What for?" She sort of knew what he meant but she wanted to clear the air around them, and she knew it was time he remembered everything about their story.

"For accepting me after everything, even after all I have done wrong in our relationship." Her heart broke a little bit after everything they have been through.

"It was not only your fault Walter." He looked down to look her in the eyes. "I was at fault too." He didn't reply, so she continued to talk. "When you told me your feelings in the spaceship I acted like I hadn't even heard it, and out of fear of breaking what we had I didn't say a thing." After spouting those words she felt Walter stiffen and realised what she had , she gauged his reaction. He simply smiled at her sadly, which surprised her.

"You remembered? Why didn't you say anything?" She asked hurriedly.

"It didn't seem to change a thing." He paused. "I had told you and you knew, but it didn't matter, which I thought it meant you didn't love back, so I thought it was better to keep quiet." He was smiling, but Paige could still see a glimpse of sadness in his eyes.

"How…?" She was speechless.

"I had been craving baked alaska for a while after I got off the rocket, I was thinking of you when I ate it, so it all came back naturally. For a while I thought that you only told me what you told me because you didn't want me to die, but I guessed it was for the best." That last comment made Paige jump.

"It wasn't a lie!" She startled Walter. "It was because of the circumstances that I said it, but I meant every word of it." He showed another soft smile, which made her relax.

"I know that now, thanks for finally telling me again Paige." She finally let go of all the tension she had been building up for even years, and relaxed next to his side.

"Do you want something to eat?" She got up after a moment. "I have some dessert on the fridge." Paige's face made Walter curious, so he obliged to eat something, since they hadn't eaten anything for quite a while.

She strolled down to her kitchen calmly, without bothering to put anything on since she and Walter were the only ones in that house. He followed her without putting any clothes as well.

She took out a half-eaten baked alaska, and he smiled when he realised what it was.

"It makes me think of you, I eat it when I need some "Walter" time." She answered shily. He took her by her hip carefully, made her sit on his lap and they ate like that, talking calmly while they tasted the most important dessert for both of them.

After the snack time Walter and Paige couldn't keep their hands from each other, so they did it again right there on the kitchen, which was amazing. But the best one came afterwards, on her bed, at six in the morning, with the sun starting to show through her window, finally being able to commit herself since all their burden had been shared. They stayed there, curled up against each other, sore, and Paige gradually drifted to sleep feeling truly happy and fullfilled for the first time for a long time.

She woke up to the sound of her phone ringing next to her, in the nightstand. Startled by the sound, she got up fast, what made her feel a little bit nauseous, so she sat back again on the bed. The phone stopped ringing before she could get to it, it was the garage probably wondering where she was since she was usually there by now. She had to be there in a little bit, so she thought she'd wait to get there instead of calling. Then the soreness from the night before came back, making her remember what happened last night. She looked around, searching for Walter but he was nowhere to be found. What she did found was a handwritten note that read "I love you, I'll be back. -W" It made her smile, how easily he said how he felt about her now.

Paige got ready with no hurry, feeling rested and happy, even though she hurt all over. Then she made her way to the garage, never expecting what she found there that morning.


	4. Surprises

**Ookay so I'm really excited to post this chapter (finally). This chapter is quite intense, and it's the opener for what's to come. I had to rip out of me the first half of this, but in the middle of it I got so engrossed that in the end it turned out to be longer that what I originally predicted, which is good. The thing about this is that even though I'm quite familiar with the gang it's difficult for me to make them act like they usually do, sometimes I finish a dialouge with the question "Would Happy/Toby really say that?" so if you see that I haven't really captured their characters in some way, please tell me about it in a review, I'm always open for advice.**

 **To nicoledbishop: Thanks for pointing out to me what didn't make sense to you (I had actually forgotten about it when I finished the chapter) so thanks, everything will be explained in this chapter. Also, thanks for the wonderful review you gave me on chapter 3, it really warmed my heart, and just as i finished reading it I had to get to writing right away.**

 **They will be a lot of timejumps in the story, like 2 to even 6 months, but don't worry I will say so when it happens.**

 **Also note: english is not my mother language (i'm spanish), so if you see some serious gramatical or spelling errors please point at them so I can fix them**

 **After all my rambling, enjoy the chapter :D**

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Paige arrived at the garage thirty minutes later. She had been trying to get a hold of Walter when she was getting ready and all the way to the garage, but there was no answer, so she had left a note on her door that explained where she was. She was sure, though, that he would already be there. When someone on the garage called it meant business, and Walter was always first.

While she got out of the car she reviewed her phone and saw all of Sly's messages about Ralph's care, he had gone to bed on time and was at school right now. She was still looking at her phone when she opened the garage door. She looked up a second to say hello, but before she looked at her phone again she did a double-take. There was a man in the middle of the garage surrounded by the group minus Walter, who was nowhere to be found. Everyone was looking at her, which made her stop dead on her tracks.

The unknown man greeted Paige, since nobody was moving an inch.

"Um... Hi, my name is Sam Wilkins." He offered his hand, and she shook it with hesitation.

"Paige Dineen" She answered him. "Em… guys what's going on? Where's Walter? He's not here yet?" She asked to the team.

"No, we haven't seen him since yesterday's incident." Silvester answered nervously.

"We have a bigger problem now though." Toby interrupted before she could ask again what was going on.

"And what is that?" She replied, a little annoyed by Toby's tone. He didn't answer, he just pointed at Sam Wilkins. Realising that the mystery man was the issue at hand, Paige studied him a little bit. He was a brown haired man with glasses. His attire made him look as a college teacher, what she assumed he was. His complexion wasn't bad, healthy, but not the one of somebody who exercises regularly.

After a couple of minutes of awkward observation Paige reached the conclusion that he wasn't dangerous, so she looked back at the team and raised an eyebrow. Noticing the tension, Sam gave Paige a document he had been holding all that time.

"I think this is what he was referring to." She took the page from his hand with a thanks and looked at this thoroughly. When she realised what it was she almost dropped it.

"Is this…?" She looked at everyone dumbfounded.

"A deed to the loft? Yes it is." Happy answered her unfinished question.

"What…? How…? When…?" Paige mumbled while she re-read the document in her shaky hands.

"So you didn't know anything about this?" Sly's worried voice made her look up. He looked like he was about to pass out from stress. She didn't have any voice in her, so she simply shook her head.

"Damn, now what?" Happy questioned. Everyone fell into deep silence, thinking about what could have happened. Then Paige did the most logical thing, she asked.

"Wait, how did you get your hands on this deed?" She asked Sam.

"Um… he gave it to me?" He hesitated, seeing everyone gaping at him.

"Well, somehow he found out I was looking for a place, since me and my girlfriend broke up, and he contacted me yesterday." He narrated his story while everyone couldn't believe what was he saying. "He told me to meet at a diner, I think it was called Nemo's, and told me he needed to leave in a hurry but he wanted to make sure his house was rented by the time he left, which was today." He finished hurriedly, nervous from the staring the team was giving him.

"And you just happened to accept such a suspicious offer?" Happy asked, not fully trusting him.

"Em, well yes. It's Walter, I knew that he would never do anything fully illegal if there wasn't a very good reason, and I needed a place real bad, I couldn't stay in my office forever, so I accepted." He continued, less nervous than before.

"And how is this going to work?" Paige asked, calmly.

"Paige!" Toby called with indignation. The team was watching her with some weird faces. Happy looked pissed, Toby looked annoyed, Silvester was silently panicking, and Cabe was quiet, in the back. She was feeling greatly distressed herself, but she couldn't break down now, before she knew what was going on.

"Calm down." She said in a calm, placating tone, that made everyone a little less tense. "I simply want to know what we're dealing with." She looked back at Sam and nodded at him, so he could keep on telling what was going on.

"He told me that the only part he was giving me was the loft, this garage was supposed to go to different owners. So I would cohabitate with those owners, hypothetically." He stopped talking when he saw the look on everyone's faces.

"What!? We're supposed to just leave the garage to a bunch of strangers!?" Happy shouted loudly.

Paige, feeling that everything was going out of control, decided to call Walter and see if they were lucky and he answered his phone.

"Don't even bother, it's off, we have been trying to reach him all morning, no answer." Toby said looking kind of fed up with everything.

"Well I haven't called him in a long while, I'll try anyway." She dialed the number. There was a sound of clicking on the other side of the line, making her believe that he had picked up the phone. Happiness swamped her, only to be crushed when an automated message answered her.

"This number is no longer in service, please check the digits and try again, or contact the following number for more information,..." She hung up before she heard the whole message. Walter had cancelled his phone, she couldn't believe it!

Cabe was looking at her expectant, and she told him that his phone was no longer.

"Okay, that's beyond weird!" Sly exclaimed. "What's going on?" He couldn't help but pace around the garage.

Completely at a loss, Paige got to her desk and opened her drawer, looking for the official forms of the garage. But instead of the papers that she knew were there, se found a big envelope. She was sure that yesterday it wasn't there, so it had to have been Walter.

Looking up she waved at everyone to come closer and opened the folder carefully. In there there were five forms, each one with the name of a member of the team. Paige furrowed her brows, confused.

"What's that?" Silvester asked, not being able to see the forms properly. Paige opened her mouth but nothing came out, she was just so astonished of what she was seeing. She tried again.

"They-they're documents that say that each one of us own 20% of the garage." Everything fell silent. "We're the new owners." The last sentence was mostly for herself, since she was sure the geniuses had already figured out what it meant.

"What!? Let me see!" Happy took the documents from Paige's hand, and after she had let go of them she fully realised what they meant.

Walter was leaving, forever. He wasn't coming back. The moment when everything clicked, she panicked. She started to shake a little, but everyone was too engrossed on the documents, except Cabe, who saw what was going on with her. He got a little bit closer to her, she was sure that he was going to hug her in a fatherly way, but she also knew that she would break down in tears the second he did. She shook her head discretely, and he relented with a nod.

"I need a moment." She unknowingly had interrupted Toby while he was talking with the group about what was going on. Everyone got quiet and gave Paige a look of sympathy, what made her leave faster than she ever had.

She went through the kitchen and crossed her mom, that was going to the team after hearing the ruckus.

"Paige what…?" She asked confused.

"Not now mom." She didn't let her finish. She closed herself into the caravan that they have in the garage, her mother's actual home. She was afraid that she would be mad for barging in, but she must've sensed she wasn't feeling okay so she let her be.

Once she was totally alone and felt safe she started to cry, for Walter, for her and for the life together that was awaiting them after what had happened last night. But for some reason it wasn't possible. She felt confused, weak and alone. Even though she knew the team felt something similar, without Walter she felt lost, naked, which shocked her. She was an independent woman, she had raised her son alone from scratch, she could handle herself perfectly, but it wasn't about that. They were made for each other, there was only Walter for her, and she was completely sure that she would never love anyone the way she loved him.

After almost an hour of letting her feelings out in the van she figured out it was time to get out, since she had to pick up Ralph in a bit, even though she wanted to stay there, safe from the world, forever. She reached for some napkins in her purse, but her eyes were puffy and couldn't see too well, so she started to search blindly inside her bag. That's when she heard a crackling noise, she took her hand out and realised it was a small paper that had somehow made it onto her purse. Confused at first, she turned it around and almost started to cry all over again. It was a note, Walter's note, the one he had left on her bed this morning. She read it again, tracing each letter with her fingers, imagining Walter as he was writing the note. Then he realised the truthfulness of it. He knew he was leaving when he left the note for her, since he had given the deed to the loft the day before. The phrase "I'll be back" meant that he was coming back someday, that he would be with her after whatever that was going on.

Paige lurched to her feet with newfound strength, and went to meet with the rest of the team. The garage was quiet, after she had left they had discussed the issue for a while but had decided to put it on hold, since everyone felt lost.

"We will keep working." She announced when she arrived at her desk. The gang looked up at her.

"What do you mean?" Asked Happy. "Walter has left us, it's over." She sounded depressed, as if she had resigned herself to the outcome.

"Walter gave each one of us part of the garage because he wanted us to keep being a team, and I'm sure he will come back." He confident pose seemed to relax the team. She looked at each one of them. "We will make it, because Walter trusts us, and we have to do everything we can to help him."


	5. Problems and solutions

**Okay, how do I start this? Im sorry for the delay (again ^^') I wanted to make at least a couple of episodes a month, maybe three, but this time I didn't even keep my usual chapter per month :0 I just have been super busy at collenge since I had my final project and I have started as an intern at a company. Now I have more time in the afternoon so I think I will be able to make releases more often.**

 **Another thing that happened with this episode was that it was kind of difficult and boring to write for me :/ I know, it shoudn't be, but it's a chapter needed to make the story where I want it to go. At one point I was going to make this into two different chapters but I wanted to finish it in one go, so it ended up being longer than previous ones. I f this one is boring for you guys and think the case it's not that interesting, I know, but my brain couldn't create anything more elaborate than this. There going to be a couple of cases in the next chapers but those will be more interesting, I promise.**

 **Also 3x22 WHAT!? I haven't been able to watch any more episodes since the last time (3x12) but I have been following what has been going on and I couldn't believe what happened. I read the ending to the episode in lookingforthestars fanfic Lighting chapter 38 and I couldn't believe it so I had to check it out. I have to say I side with Walter on this one guys, sorry :(**

 **Well, enjoy the chapter, I promise next one will be more interesting :S**

 **PS: I have changed the name of the fanfic from The node to The code, since the initial draft of the story involved a note that it's going to be a code now ^^'**

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"We'll do great guys, don't worry, we can do this!" Paige's statement was met with silence and tension.

It had been a week since the team had lost Walter, and spirits were low. Paige almost let herself feel depressed as well, but then she would take out Walter's note, and her objective to get him back would be stronger than ever.

At first the team had been totally against Paige's decision (except Cabe) but they had come around, realising that they needed to eat.

Sam had gotten installed that same day into the loft and Walter's things were stored behind the caravan. No one had touched those boxes once since they has been left there. Samantha had almost moved them into a different place, but Paige almost punched her. She had stopped herself pretty fast, feeling disgusted with herself, but everyone got the message: Walter's things couldn't be touched. Even his desktop was left exactly the same since he disappeared, and Paige would look at it every morning while she did her work.

Today's assignment wasn't one of the most complicated ones, which was perfect, since the team had to get used to the new mechanic of Scorpion. The objective was to implant a listening device into a drug factory that was actually unused but could be in some time, which could help them take down the cartel.

Everyone would be going in the field, posing as a real estate agency doing some maintenance.

"Paige, do I need to go?" Silvester nervously asked for tenth time. She sighed, sad she had to force him to go.

"Yes Silvester. Sorry, we need a technician on site." She could feel Sly shiver. "But don't worry, you can stay in the car, safe from all harm, okay? Besides, Cabe will be there guarding you." That seemed to calm him a bit. Still nervous though, all that he could do was nod, while he gave a weak smile.

"Okay, everyone remember their roles?" Paige addressed the whole team, and a bunch of Yes followed her question. "Great, let's repeat each one's function." She could hear Happy's sigh through the garage.

"Look guys, I'm sorry, but I don't want to have any problems and this is a first for us." She looked around, knowing she was too stressed and was making the team uncomfortable.

"I will be on the van, monitoring the building and help Happy through the configuration of the bug, with Cabe helping me." Sly spoke first, knowing how stressed everyone felt.

"I will be going incognito and will place the bug." Happy followed.

"And Paige and I will be the face of the cover story, a team of real estate agents doing some maintenance." Toby finished.

"Okay guys, so we're ready. Let's drop Ralph at school and go."

"Good luck guys." A voice from upstairs said. Paige looked up and Sam was looking right back.

Happy barely acknowledged him, Silvester said thanks in a hurried manner, Toby thanked him kind of in a harsh way, and Cabe politely answered. Then everyone left for the van, leaving Sam and Paige alone in silence. After some time she decided to break the ice.

"I'm sorry about this." She said trying to comfort him.

"Don't worry." He responded quickly. "I have been in this kind of situation before." Paige looked at him, confused. "I have worked with Walter quite a lot over time, and he acted the exact same way when we met."

"Oh." She sighed, surprised and curious about what relationship they shared.

"So don't worry." He repeated. "Be careful and good luck."

"Thanks a lot Sam." They smiled at each other, feeling that they understood each other quite well, even though they had just met a week ago, and said goodbye.

Everyone had their hair on edge for the whole ride, not wanting to mess up this mission. When they arrived at their location they split up to do their tasks. Toby and Paige and went first, to do an initial reconnaissance round. Everyone else was waiting inside the van disguised as a technician company, the air thick with tension.

Meanwhile Paige and Toby started snooping around the building, looking if there was anyone there. In that time Happy couldn't stop criticizing Sam, not for who he was, but for the fact that he had taken Walter's place. Paige tried to persuade her that it wasn't true, but was unable to change her mind. While the discussion through the coms took place Toby looked at Paige with an apologetic look that she answered with a little smile.

Suddenly, after a making a left turn on a dusty hallway, she bumped straight into someone, what made her squeal, what in turn concluded the discussion. Toby arrived where she was in less than a minute.

"Are you okay?" She heard him say next to her and through the coms.

"Y-yes, I was just startled by this man." Se motioned to the guy in front of her.

He was big and full of tattoos, with a menacing aura around him. He was smiling faintly, what made the whole situation even creepier, thought Paige, but she wasn't going to blow their cover by having a fit right then and there.

"What can I help you with?" He said in a russian accent. Instantly Paige knew that he was bad news. The way he had talked and his presence screamed danger. She gave a knowing look at Toby, to be sure that he felt that as well. After he gave her a knowing nod she announced herself.

"Hi, sorry to disturb you. I suppose we're talking to the current tenant of this building?" She asked in a very commercial and rehearsed voice from the diner.

"Um, yes, yes. I'm the owner. Who are you?" At first he stumbled a little bit, taken aback by Paige's cordiality and fake kindness, but at the end sounded defensive.

"¡Oh!" She said, feigning forgetfulness. "My name is Sarah, Sara Winters, and this man over here is my associate Clancy." She recited. "We're with a real estate agency, we are here to do the final revision before the building definitely sells." That made the man jump in attention.

"Excuse-me? Nobody told me you two were coming." He was kind of suspicious.

"Yes." Intervened Toby. "But that's the whole issue, it has to be surprise so the owner won't have time to hide any kind of damage o similar." He looked at him, not trusting him at all, so Paige chimed in.

"It won't even take an hour, we will simply tour around for a while, you can accompany us if it makes you feel more comfortable." She reassured the man.

"Okay, you give five minutes." He said, and left Paige and Toby alone, entering the room to his right.

"Okay, so we're set." Paige said through the coms once the man was not on sight.

"Happy, you remember the schematics we gave you right?" She asked her.

"Sure, sure, I've memorised everything. Just let me know when you're on the move so I can get on with my business." She answered.

"Sure." Paige sighed, worried something was going to compromise the operation.

After a while the same door opened again and the gigantic man came through.

"Please follow me" He stated, trying to sound cordial, but Paige could feel a tinge of nervousness in his voice, probably worried about what they could find in the building.

"Thanks for your help." She picked the bag that she had purposely left on the ground. "Okay, we are ready to go."

"Okay, time to go!" Happy called through the intercom, and everyone got on the move.

Everything was going smoothly, a new one for the team, thought Paige. Happy was currently going around the facility, underground, to find a good place. Until she talked.

"I'm in room 2H on the map, I see nothing suspicious or a place I could place the bug." Paige only had a couple of seconds to register her statement, wasn't room H the one next to them?

Their guide opened the door while he was talking to Toby and she was the first one to see a startled Happy on the middle of the room flabbergasted.

"Excuse me!" She shouted before she realiseed what she was doing. The man turned around to look at her and Toby finally saw her too. While she said some stupid stuff to the gruff man she could see Toby signaling something to Happy which she interpreted as to leave the room and go to the first floor, where there was the suspicious room. She left the room from the place she came in through, another door in the opposite side of the room, just a Paige had run out of stupid stuff to say.

The man man turned back around and didn't realise a thing while Paige sighed in relief, thinking of the close call. Maybe it was too premature to say they were doing well.

"Hum guys, we have a problem." Happy said after some more roaming around. Yup, she spoke too fast.

"Tell me." Cabe replied, as Paige and Toby couldn't show any indicative that they were in contact with other people.

"There's a pretty good security system." She stated quite calmly, which meant she wasn't in immediate danger, which was good.

"How good?" Sly replied rapidly.

"As "They're are keeping something illegal there" kind of good." She said sarcastically, which stole a little smile from Paige.

"I'll try to override it so you can go through." Silvester started to work, while Cabe was on the lookout.

As they were walking Paige saw as the guide realised something on the street, it was quite fast so she wasn't sure, but it seemed as if there was something suspicious outside. He excuse himself for a minute to make a call and Toby and Paige looked at each other with a knowing look. As soon as he left they both leapt to the window to asses if it was some kind of danger for them. All that they could see was their van.

"Guys, Paige said as fast as she could, I think they onto you!" Just as she informed them the door came open and the gruff man came through it, making it impossible to say anything more to them.

"Wait, what do you mean?!" Sly asked nervously. There was no answer she could give without raising suspicion so she kept quiet.

He kept talking and asking stuff, but since she was answering anything he said it ended up being rambling.

Cabe went to look around so make sure everything was okay, leaving a very distressed Silvester alone on the van. He took that time to hide anything that could incriminate them as spies, barely making it as the van side door opened and some not trustworthy guys scooped him up out of the van.

"Dammit Sly!" Happy shouted at the mic when everyone realised that they had been compromised.

Paige and Toby continued with the cover story, since they didn't want to get killed but it was no use. The guy had guided them back to the first floor, where more people were waiting for them, probably to be sure they didn't run away. Of course things couldn't turn out smoothly.

They took them into a dim-lighted room, and closed them off. As soon as they were left alone they assessed the situation.

"How are you guys?" Paige was the first to ask.

"Sly and I are safe, locked in a room, but fine. It seems they are waiting to see what to do with us." Cabe answered, since Sly was probably panicking at that moment.

"I'm still undetected, the haven't seen me." Happy said.

"Perfect!" Toby exclaimed,and Page had to shush him to be quiet.

"Okay so what do we do now?" Silvester's panicked voice talked through.

She tried to reassure the team but she had nothing.

"I-i…I don't know guys." She could feel everyone listening closely to their coms.

"But we can figure it out guys!" She said as a form as encouragement.

"Oh!" Sly exclaimed.

"Oh! is good, what is good Sly?" He asked in his reassuring voice.

"There something here that could be of use." She could hear rummaging in the background.

"What is there?" Everyone asked.

"The wiring that powers up the whole building I think." She replied.

"That's good!" Paige felt things were turning back around in their favour until she heard Sly sigh.

"I dont' have the proper tools with me to hack their system." He said before anyone asked.

"But you can use it to leave?" Happy asked.

"More rummaging before Sly answers.

"Nope, these doors are traditionally locked." Toby looks around the door and answers before her.

"Here as well."

"Okay, so I would have to bust you out guys the traditional way." She reached to the conclusion.

"Yea, there's only one problem though." Toby said. "We're next to their control room, I can hear people at the other end of the door."

"Okay that's a problem." She said. "They want to keep us you close in case there's more of us and they need some hostages, I suppose." Happy explains with no difficulty. The ensuing silence speaks for itself.

"Wow, nice assessment." Toby jokes.

"Well, I'm engaged with a shrink so something was going to rub off." She answered jokingly. THat made everyone smile a little bit.

"Guys I think I can help." An unknown voice said.

They got startled to hear someone else on the coms, what was going on?

"Oh! Before you say anything guys, it's me, Sam." Paige could hear as Happy buffed at the other extreme of the coms. After the initial surprise Silvester asked.

"How did you get in there?" He was quite surprised. Paige heard a soft laugh at the other side of the coms. It was a nice laugh.

"You left this channel open when you guys left and as I started to make lunch I heard your issues. I tink I can help you guys." Sam explained.

"How?" Happy rudely asked.

"You said you were next to the security panel right, Happy?" He asked to make sure.

"Yes.." She said warily.

"If you open the panel you can give me the base code which I can hack." He explained calmly.

"Of course! So you can create a distraction and Happy can get us out!" Sly exclaimed, happy.

Happy gave Sam all that she could on the security system, stuff that Paige, of course didn't understand, guess Walter didn't rub off on her after all.

Suddenly alarms started to go off in the building.

"What's going on!?" A distressed Silvester screamed.

"Nothing, don't worry, I'm making them believe there's a gas leak, they're are evacuating." Sam said calmly, making Sly calm as well.

"Well, now what?" Cabe asked.

After some time Happy was able to get to them before the thugs came back, but they still hadn't completed they job, they needed to place a bug in their system.

Sly was able to work it out with Sam's assistance and the second they had everything they left the place. The van was in good shape since they hadn't found the equipment Sly had hidden.

They arrived at the garage worn out and glad they had been able to pull through at the end.

Paige approached Sam first, happy that he had helped them pulling them out of a pinch, just as Walter did when they were in trouble.

"Thanks a lot for your help, Sam." She smiled, what made him smile at her as well.

"Um.." Happy approached him more hesitantly. "Well, thanks a lot for helping save my fiancee and everyone else." She said showing a little bit of a smile, what made Paige glad that she was not mad at him anymore.

The rest of the team thanked him and stayed talking with him for some time. Paige decided to do some paperwork while the team celebrated the success of their assignment. She reviewed Sam's contract and reached to a conclusion.

"Sam do you have a job right now?" She asked suddenly getting u of her table and halting all conversation that was going on between him and Toby.

"Um..N-no." He answered, startled by her question.

"Would you like to work with us? As Walter's replacement until he comes back." She asked. She could see everyone's face surprised at her question. She knew they would get mad at her for not thinking of this together as a team, but the thought had just occurred to her, and she felt that that was Walter's intention when he gave him the loft. SHe explained herself as fast as she could.

"W-well, when Walter left he left you his loft, and he knew you had no job to pay it, so it's logical that he would want you to work with us." Happy was looking at her skeptically. "You guys were right, with only us five were aren't going to be able to make it, but we have to do so so Walter has something to come back to." That last statement made everyone realise her point of view. THey stared at Sam.

"For me no problem."

The next day Paige looked across her desk, but the one in front of her was not empty anymore. I had hurt her a lot more than she thought when Sam with Veronica's help had moved everything to the back of the van with all of Walter's things, but she had been able to hide that fact saying that she had to pick up Ralph.

When she saw him as he approached him at the school's gate that afternoon she hugged him tight and while he reciprocated her hug she felt a couple of lonely tears fall from her cheeks.


	6. Hidden pain

**Oh my god! It hasn't been even a week and I have already posted the next chapter! :O The apocalypse is coming! All joking aside I really can't believe I finished it with so little time. The way that it works every time I post a chapter is that that same day I usually start the next one. Usually I write them gradually over the month, but for this chapter for some weird reason I was so into it I couldn't stop. And what do you know, this one is pretty long as well.**

 **eltonjon2001: First of all, thanks for the great review, pointing the stuff that didn't quite click with you was very helpful, I will keep it in mind for future chapters. About what you said about Walter, I don't want to spoil anything since the whole story is based on the mistery of wtf is going on, so I can't tell you how it's gonna go, but what I can say is that the end is going to be amazing, it will finish with a bang ;) About Paige, well if you read this chapter you'll see it's all about her feelings towards Walter's** disappearance **. Also want to say that don't hesitate to review me again, since your comment is what made me write the next chapter this fast :D**

 **Like I said in the answer, this chapter will be emotional, me have some Page/Toby bonding and some Ralph/Paige as well.**

 **Hope you like it, and please comment and review, it helps me a lot! :P**

* * *

It had already been a month, she thought that she would have grown accustomed to his lack of presence but it wasn't true, everyday hurt more than the last. Scorpion was running quite smoothly thanks to Sam's involvement in it, and the team was starting  
to feel sort of functional again, achieving more than a couple of well done jobs. Paige couldn't stop worrying about the lost genius though. She had been able to block his memory for a while thanks to the adrenaline running through her in that drug  
bust mission, but when the endorphins had worn off she couldn't stop thinking about him. She had been able to play off how much it had affected her, but if she didn't do something she would break out crying in front of the team, or worse, in the middle  
of a mission.

She suddenly blinked, realising her eyes were drying out. She had been staring into her laptop's screen for quite some time, not doing any kind of work whatsoever. Paige looked around, to see if somebody had seen her. Everyone was doing their personal  
projects except Toby, that was discreetly looking at her, what made her nervous, since he was definitely going to ask her about it and she didn't feel ready to talk about it yet. As he got up from the desk and was getting closer to her she looked  
around for Ralph or Cabe, the only people that could block him, since Happy was not going to move from her station. Unfortunately Ralph was at school (obviously) and since they weren't on an active mission Cabe was at Homeland. Looking for an escape  
she suddenly got up and went to the kitchen, convincing herself that she needed to eat something. Toby did not relent though, and followed her.

Trying to make herself look busy she started to prepare a basic sandwich, ignoring Toby's presence.

"Paige." He talked.

"Oh! Hi Toby." She answered as casually as she could, in hopes that her greeting would stop him from asking things.

His face easily told her that he hadn't bought it even a little bit. She sighed admitting defeat. He wasn't going to leave her alone until he had had his way. She pointed at the lonely couch, if she was going to have such a draining conversation either  
way she'd rather be sitting for it. He nodded and followed her. They sat in silence for at least five minutes. Feeling the tension Paige tried to break the ice.

"So, how's everything? The wedding?" The only thing that Toby had been talking about for the past month had been the ceremony, maybe with hopes of lifting the spirit of the team.

"Don't force yourself to make small talk Paige." He looked worried, what put her off for a second. "We are worried about you."

He paused for a second, maybe trying to gauge her reaction, but she had been a waitress for much too long and she could fake a good face. He sighed. "You're the only one that hasn't properly faced his disappearance."

"I don't know what you mean, I've been coping with it." She answered quickly, wanting to be done with that conversation. He sensed her hurry.

"Yes, coping, but you haven't truly dealt with it yet." He was using his shrinky voice now.

"What do you mean? I have been doing the same as you guys." She was now defending herself, but she didn't care at that moment.

"Not really, Happy has talked to me about it, since we are engaged." His voice changed when he uttered that word, he was so in love. It made her feel a twinge of jealousy inside her. "And Sly came to me a week ago to talk about something unrelated and  
we ended up discussing our situation."

"What about Cabe then?" She retorted, fearing where this was going.

"He's a grown man, he will be able to get through it." He dismissed him fast.

"Paige, have you talked to someone about it?" His tone changed to a gentler one. "Ralph?"

"N-no, I haven't been able to properly tell him, I fear that if I do it will mean that I've given up on him getting back." Saying the thoughts she had had roaming hear head outloud eased a burden of her shoulders, she felt lighter somehow.

"It won't." She looked at him and she was able to see all the pain hidden behind his eyes, he was missing him too. He rested a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry about other people Paige, worry about yourself, your son needs to know what is going on,  
and telling him about it will help you." He let go of her, and stayed seated next to her in silence.

"I thought you would try to pry it out of me." Paige admitted, showing a little smile.

"Normally I would, but this is something important, and I know that the only people you would feel comfortable sharing this kind of thing would be Walter and Ralph, and since Walter is out of the question you need to speak to your son." Toby's words soothed  
her, and she got up to go back to work.

"Thanks Toby, I will…" She suddenly felt a little dizzy and had to ease herself again onto the couch. The psychiatrist was quick to respond.

"Wow, are you okay Paige?" He got closer.

"Y-yes, I just felt dizzy from standing up too fast. It will pass in a second." He didn't relent though. He got even closer to be able to see her face best. She felt a little uncomfortable, but was still feeling dizzy, so she had no strength to refuse  
him.

"Paige, you haven't been sleeping enough, and you lack nutrition, you need a breather." He separated himself from her. "Go home, take it easy and spend some quality time with your son." He helped her up and accompanied her to her desk. Feeling that she  
wasn't going to win, she accepted her fate.

"Yes, I will. Thanks Toby." Some rest would do her good, and she would never say no to some quality time with her son.

She left the garage after half an hour, ready to go pick Ralph, having called the babysitter about the change of plans.

They went to have lunch at Kowalski's, and hanged out at the library for quite some time, it was one of Ralph's favourite places. Then they went to the park to walk, it was nice out.

They sat on a park bench that was quite separated from the rest, what enabled a little of privacy. Paige tried to start a conversation but found it difficult.

"There's something bothering you, I can tell." The little boy said. She looked at him, and he was looking at her right back, worried.

"I'm sorry if I made you feel like I didn't enjoy your company because I totally did." She answered him, now calmer, as she ruffled his hair. Her actions made him smile a little bit.

"It's just that there's an issue we should have talked for a long time but I couldn't bring myself to do so." He listened carefully, not wanting to miss a little second of her talking.

"It-it's about Walter, Honey." She saw exact moment her son understood her words, his face tensed, and even though he didn't move a muscle she saw the tension oozing of him.

"He has gone missing, nobody knows where he is." She tried to sound as reassuring as possible, but she knew it wasn't going to have any effect on her son at that moment. He looked back at her, serious.

"Please tell me the circumstances of his disappearance." Even though he was polite she sensed his urgency so she explained as fast as she could.

"It was a month ago, when you stayed with Silvester." He nodded remembering perfectly when she was talking about.

"He disappeared for a whole day, and gladly we found him, but he went to some strange places during the day. He finally got in contact with us and realised it had been only a scare."

She paused, she didn't know how to approach this with Ralph.

"He came to visit me and stayed over, but in the morning he was gone. No sign of him whatsoever." Every word she had spoken was making it more real, and she didn't think that she would be able take much more, she needed a couple of seconds.

Ralph, feeling her distress, got a little closer to her since he knew that physical proximity comforted her. Paige felt a sob escaping her mouth, but she kept herself together, she had to hold on until they were finished with the conversation.

"I'm sorry Ralph, I know how much you like him." She said after taking a couple of seconds to recompose herself. They looked at each other face to face and she could see his pain in his eyes, she was surely feeling the same. She had lost the love of her  
life a month ago, but for him was like he had lost a father a second time, and that was one of the things that broke her most of all, her son's pain.

"Mum, I need to show you something." He looked hesitant when he uttered those words. That was the face he had on when he had done something he knew was wrong.

"Ralph, what's wrong?" He looked at his backpack guilty. Instead of answering her he simply reached inside his bag.

He took out a wrinkled and folded paper, and gave it to her. For a second she stared at it, and realised the creases on it, it had probably been folded and unfolded a hundred times. Slowly she opened it, fearing what was inside.

For a second she forgot to breathe, realising the same instant what it was. She had memorised his handwriting in the last month, every morning looking at his note, and looking over all his notes (even if she didn't understand them), it was definitely  
Walter's handwriting.

Paige gaped at the paper in front of her, and looked at her son, surprised. He simply stared back, with a worried look on his face.

"Mom, please read it. He said not to show it to anyone but I think you need it." She couldn't stop gaping until a thought made her crinkle a smile. Ralph was acting so mature about all of it being barely 10, and Paige, his mother was acting like a child  
about it. It definitely felt like they had switched roles. Shaking her head to ready herself, she looked at the letter and read through it.

 _"Dear Ralph,_

 _I don't have a lot of time, so I'll make this letter short and efficient._

 _I have to go. Personal issues prevent me from telling you the reason behind my trip, but I'll have you know this._

 _This is the only option, I can't face what's to come any other way, if I did everyone would be in danger, and you and your mom are the most important people in my life._

 _When everyone realises my disappearance I will be long gone. You can't show them this letter, if they know they will all be in danger._

 _The last issue I want to adress is this one:_

 _I love your mom. I love Paige and I have been in love for three years. I have the highest regards for you as well Ralph, and believe when I say that leaving you both is the hardest issue I've had to face in this endeavour._

 _Please don't force her to talk about this, I can predict she'll be mad, or if she's not she won't want to talk about it, wait until she's ready to talk to you._

 _Be strong and believe that I'll be back._

 _W"_

She couldn't stop reading over and over, still find it difficult to believe that he wrote to his son to say goodbye. When she felt a hand resting on her shoulder she realised she was shaking all over. Looking to her left she stared at her son looking  
at her. They hugged for the longest time, until she realised it was late and they needed to get home.

That night after having had dinner and put Ralph to bed she relaxed on her own bed, staring at Walter's letter. They had agreed that it was better if Paige kept it in a safe place, since the letter stated that it was dangerous if it got into the wrong  
hands. She was going to put it into her safe, but she wanted to read through it one last time before going to sleep.

After looking at it for what she calculated was like fifteen minutes a wave of anger swamped through her. How dare he? After all they had been through that's how he said goodbye to her? With a two-sentence note to her and a beautiful letter to her son?  
All questions without a single answer, what was going on?

She wanted to scream, shout and break something, but even with all that bottled up anger she was unable to hate Walter for leaving her. She got up and went to the kitchen, went to the stove and almost burned the damn letter. At the last second though,  
she stopped, feeling herself unable to do such thing. Hearing a noise she turned around, and Ralph was there, he probably had trouble sleeping, just like her. At that exact moment she stopped being angry at him. Remembering the contents of the letter  
reminded her that he loved them and he would come back for them. Feeling like breaking down Paige went to her son, and they hugged while they both cried. That night they slept together in her bed, hugging each other and imagining Walter was with them.


	7. Waiting

**Hey everyone! Look at that a new chapter is up o.o I have been** receiving **a lot of feedback from the last chapter and it's the reason this is here for your enjoyment (or pain). It has come out as the longest episode yet, and I have to say it was thrilling to write, since the mission that happens in this here is an actual interesting one.**

 **Special thanks to nocoledbishop and eltonjon2001: thanks for sticking around and posting reviews so often, it really pumps me up :D I implemented some of the stuff that you put in your reviews I hope you guys don't mind.**

 **Okay guys, I have listened to you and in this chapter will be some stuff about Walter. All that happens in this episode was supposed to happen offscreen but people asked for some Walter and the inspiration struck me. There's one thing I have say though: in next 3 to 4 chapters there's going to be a lot of hurt and angst, so brace yourselves (like I said you weren't supposed to see what's happening now) I WARNED YOU ò.ó I will try to post once a week or every two weeks so you don't have to wait a long time , but I can't promise anything. I will try though!**

 **(Ps: Please don't stop reading now, even if it hurts please stick with me to the end TnT)**

 **ALSO: 3x23! Friggin finally :D**

 **I was so excited! The whole episode was great and that supply closet scene... . &. Fantastic. If you haven't seen it I suggest you do because it's great.**

 **Just so know this happens 2 MONTHS after Walter disappears.**

 **Without further ado, here it is!**

* * *

He opened his eyes, looking at the window on the bedroom. Sun was shining through the drapes. He got up slowly, and realised he wasn't sleeping in his room. Confused, he looked around until he found a naked body to his left. She was sleeping on her stomach with the bed sheets entangled with her legs, so he could see her bare back rising and falling as she breathed. God she was so beautiful. He got closer and started to caress her back softly, not wanting her to wake up. Even though she didn't wake up she did feel it. Her body shuddered at his contact, and after some time she moved a little bit. She turned around, facing him, while she whispered his name in her sleep. She then proceeded to get closer to him to snuggle, and he let her. He stayed in that position for what seemed like years, and he realised that he belonged there. He had had his doubts about if he was worthy enough for her, but at that instant he felt it was his place, where he was meant to be, sprawled on the bed, with her curled against him.

Gradually he started to smell something foul. It wasn't a smell she would have in her appartment. Seeing smoke coming out from the door, he realised there was a fire. He quickly got up, put on his pants and tried to wake her up. She wasn't responding, and he stayed there until the smoke was too much to breathe and passed out next to her. In his last moments of consciousness he thought that if he had to die, he was glad it was next to her.

Suddenly his eyes shot open. He looked around, confused, and realised that he wasn't on her apartment any more. When he looked up and saw a man wearing a ski mask he remembered what was his situation. He groaned, realising they had soaked him in water to get him to get up. He didn't have any time to move in any way, a sudden pain in his abdomen stopping him from making any kind of movement. Not daring to look down he felt around his shirt and was rewarded with a red bloody hand. He looked at it for a couple of seconds, integrating the idea that he had a huge wound and that he could easily bleed out.

"It's a gunshot wound." The masked man said. He looked at him properly for the first time and stared. "Hey he's awake, let's proceed." He said to his back, and saw another man with a huge tank of gasoline in his hand. That made him look behind the second man and saw smoke, that was what he was dreaming.

He looked back at the man next to him and saw him strangely calm despite the fact that there was a fire going on on the building, it led him to believe that it was intended, they provoked the fire. Then he saw he was holding a gun and supposed he was the gentleman that shot him.

"Hey, don't look at me like that. You got yourself into this mess, you followed us, remember?" He did like the man said but he wasn't able to focus. Between the wound and the smoke that was getting into the room he couldn't think clearly.

"Hey, if you're done help me around here." Ski mask said to the other guy. He left the now empty tank on the ground next to all the gasoline he had spilled on the ground and went to him. "We have to move him even if it's just a little bit if we want to make it look like an accident." The other guy obliged and took him from one arm while the other took him from the other one.

They started to drag him to another room while they chatted among themselves. Logically he knew he had to move, to run, to escape, but his body wasn't listening to him. His vision was blurry now and he started to think. Why had he dreamed about their first time together? It was a hallucination (obviously) but it had been so nice that he wouldn't have minded if he had died dreaming about her. He then realised the reason, it was easy enough. He was in love with her, she was his whole world, and if he were to die now at least he knew that she would be safe.

Knowing he would lose consciousness in a few seconds he imagined her face again, this time smiling at him.

"I love you Paige." Walter murmured before it all faded into black.

* * *

1 day before

It was a relaxed day at the garage, they weren't on a mission so it was quite nice, no stress or danger, just paperwork. They had gotten back from Russia a couple of days ago where they were able to stop part of a complot on weapon trading. Paige looked at the same place she looked everyday when she got in the office or from a break, Walter's desk. Well, it wasn't Walter's desk anymore right? It was supposed to be Sam's. It had already been two months for goodness sake. She still contacted homeland every wednesday though, and always asked the same question.

"Have you made any progress on Walter O'brien's disappearance?" They would always answer differently, but it all amounted to the simple answer of NO. She was growing frustrated everyday that was passing, and she realised she was growing more bitter everyday as well. Not with her son, of course, but with other people, mostly her mom, Happy and Sam.

Everyone could feel Walter's absence, but Veronica had been able to adapt herself to the change fairly quickly, which annoyed her. It's true that Walter and her mom hadn't known each other for a really long time, but it hurted her that she was able to forget his presence so fast.

The problem with Happy was that she kind of liked the guy, not in a romantic way of course, but they had become kind of buddies. She had been the first one against him taking Walter's seat, but now they were good friends. The thing was that it wasn't her fault, or even Sam's, but she couldn't help but be kind of mad at her.

Sam had been a real help for the past months, and even though she had been the one to offer him the job sometimes she wished he would disappear. She was mad at the fact that they had settled on a routine were Walter was not present, and even though they all carried that worry in their souls, they were healing, forgetting, and she didn't want that. She didn't want to forget Walter. Every week she would have new hopes of him being on the garage when she got there, but each week that passed that hope was smaller. It had reached a point that it was more like a dream than hoping, a dream she had dreamt far too much this past month.

The worse part though was the team. They were fine without him, they hurted but missions were done the same way there were when he was here, and it killed her. It killed her waking everyday with less hope of finding him. Homeland had been wanting to drop his case for quite some time, presuming him dead, but Cabe hadn't let them. He and Ralph were the people that understood her the most. Or so she thought until she saw Ralph and Sam together today.

She had picked up Ralph up from school a couple of hours ago so he could see the team and do homework while she finished her own work. She had left him at the kitchen table and when she had gone back a few minutes ago to check on him and get some coffee she had found him chatting with Sam. That scene had surprised her, since Ralph wasn't too keen to talk to people outside of the garage, but the way they communicated told her that they were enjoying their way Ralph was so enthusiastic reminded her of the all the times she had seen him and Walter do something together, be building a rocketship or doing homework together. It killed her that the man next to her son wasn't Walter, but someone else entirely, a nice, capable guy with high EQ. That was the thing about Sam, he was almost as capable as Walter (even though he wasn't technically a genius) and had a high EQ to boot, which meant that her work was less strenuous and was fun to be around. They had talked at least a couple of times, mostly because they were polite to each other and instead of an awkward silence they prefered talking, but she had ended having a great time talking to him those times. With her son though it had been different. At first he wasn't on board with the arrangment, but like Happy, he had grown to like Sam, or so she thought as she watched them ramble about something together.

Paige was trying to understand what the guys were discussing so passionately when her mum came in and asked the team's attention. Apparently she had something to show them.

When everyone was gathered around she talked.

"Okay guys, so I need your help with something." Veronica's face said that something was wrong, she definitely had done something illegal that had landed her in trouble. Paige sighed while everyone watched.

"What's wrong?" She hoped she didn't ask them to do anything illegal. Her face must have reflected her thoughts perfectly since her mum rushed and answer.

"No! It's nothing illegal! Don't worry." She gave her mum an untrusting look.

"Look, you know I know a lot of people right? So there's somebody that I have been in contact for some time that is kind of a mole in an organisation." That explanation wasn't what Paige was expecting at all.

"As in organised crime?" Toby asked dumbfounded. Veronica shrugged.

"Kind of. The thing is that he sometimes gives me information about things they will do, like heists and stuff." She paused. "So he asked me a favour a couple of days ago and I would really appreciate your help." Paige sighed again.

"What do you need mum?" She saw how her mom's face lighted up at her answer.

"Okay." She inserted a flash drive onto the main computer.

"This is an abandoned building in Brooklin, used to be a factory. Apparently the organisation plans to bring it to the ground causing a fire, but the thing that most people don't know it that there's this inside." A picture of an old reactor appeared on the screen, it reminded Paige of the first case she had with her mum. "This is an old reactor, similar to the one we had to dismantle a year ago, but not that tricky." Happy got closer to the image.

"That's not nuclear, but this piece over here is odd." The mechanic pointed at the screen.

"Yes, that's the issue. For itself it's not dangerous, but some years ago they installed illegally this little accessory that makes it nuclear." She paused, waiting everyone to catch up. "If the building catches on fire, Kaboom, nuclear bomb." Paige felt at loss of words.

"So how do we do this?" Sam asked.

"Well, it looks that it's only an accessory right?" Happy asked Veronica who nodded. "So all that we have to do is disconnect it from the reactor and take it someplace safe where it can be dismantled."

It sounded easy enough, something that made Paige not trust the whole thing. When something was easy usually it ended up in a load of problems.

They decided they would leave first thing tomorrow, so Paige called the babysitter to let her know she was going to be out for the day.

She and Ralph got home and she could feel his excitement when she told her what he had been discussing with Sam. She listened and commented on it while she ate, wondering how it had been so easy for Sam to get along with her son when usually people didn't get him.

They finished their food and said their goodnights. Before Ralph left for his room he said to her.

"That's why Walter chose him." She didn't answer to his affirmation, or asked anything about it, so he went to his bed and was asleep in minutes.

Laying in bed Paige thought about what Ralph had said. What did he mean when he said Walter chose him for a reason? He was simply a friend in need right? She asked herself those questions until she realised what her son meant. Of course it was a special choice. Sam was smart, smart enough that he could keep up with the geniuses, but not a genius, so he had good socializing skills. He used to be a college professor but had worked tons of cases with Walter when he was an analyst, so he knew how to do those kind of missions. He was trained in every way they needed so they wouldn't suffer from Walter's disappearance, he had made sure of that. That night Paige went to sleep loving Walter a little bit more, even if it was impossible.

Paige woke up with restlessness in her body, fearing the mission for some weird reason. The babysitter came in and she left for work after giving Ralph a kiss goodbye.

When she got to the garage she could feel tension, everyone feeling odd about this mission. Silvester was staying running the coms since he refused to be near a building that was going to catch on fire. The rest would head out to the building with Veronica who was in contact with the mole.

During the ride there Paige got sick and had to stop the car so she could recover. After barfing for a while they were able to get on the move again. Toby checked her out, and finding nothing wrong realised that she was still with lack of nutrients.

"Paige, have you been eating?" He asked raising his brow accusingly.

"Yes I have, it's just that I haven't been feeling so well. I get dizzy and nauseous sometimes, no fever though." She answered.

"Well, it looks like the flu, you might have caught it in Russia. If there's no fever you'll be fine." Toby said. "You shouldn't come in with us though, just to be safe." She sighed and accepted that assessment, since she wasn't particularly excited to enter a building that was about to explode.

Toby, Happy, Sam and Cabe went in, leaving Paige and her mum to run things from outside.

"Sly, can you show us the way?" Sam asked through the coms. Silvester answered a yes and started to guide them through the building.

"Wait! Did you say turn left?" Toby asked suddenly.

"Yes, why? There's supposed to be a door on the left at the end of the hallway." Sly responded casually.

"Because there's no door, Sly, that's why." Happy retorted.

"The blueprints must be outdated guys, I'm sorry." He said.

"It's strange though, because there's no official statement from the original owners. If there was some construction it was illegal."

"Can't you map the building any other way?" Paige asked.

"With thermal imaging!" Veronica exclaimed suddenly, scaring the hell out of Paige.

"With thermal imaging…? Of course! This way I can see where you guys are and since it's an old building the electric cables are quite overheated. It will also help me see weird stuff." Silvester got to work and he was able to bring the team to the reactor.

Everything was going to plan, they were still hours away from the team that was going to blow up the building. Suddenly an alarm started banging through the coms.

"Guys what's going on!?" Paige shouted above the blaring sound.

"Happy triggered some sort of alarm when she tried to hack into the reactor!" Toby shouted back.

"Guys we need to shut it down!" Cabe exclaimed.

"It makes no sense! This building has been abandoned for the last five years! The alarm shouldn't be functioning!" Sly panicked.

"Sly! Calm down! Just tell us how to shut it down." Sam aported.

"Okay, okay. There is a maintenance room at the other end of the floor. From the plans I can deduce there's where the light control panel is."

"Okay, I'll go." Cabe talked before anyone else could offer to go. "Happy and Sam, you need to dismantle the reactor, I'm the best option." No one opposed to his decision, seeing it was the most logical.

Cabe got there and was able to shut down the alarm with Sly's help. Things were going well again until Silvester's gasp was heard through the coms.

"Guys another problem!" Paige sighed, the definitely weren't doing well.

"When Happy triggered the alarm the reactor closed himself."

"What do you mean?" Toby asked.

"You're stuck in that room until we can disable the mechanism."

"Can I just turn it down from here?" Cabe asked from the maintenance room.

"No, it won't work. Apparently the reactor has a separate line." He paused. "You guys are stuck in the building, the only way to get to the control room is from the outside."

"I'll go!" Paige exclaimed before her mum offered to go. For some reason she felt she had to be the one to do it.

"Paige you can't! Your immune system is not recovered yet, you need to rest." Toby said.

"I'm perfectly fine Toby. I don't feel sick any more." She lied instantaneously. The doctor started to lecture her, but she ignored him.

"Where do I go Sly?" After some hesitation he guided her to the basement and she was quite surprised when she got there.

"Guys, this room is pretty weird." She said hesitantly.

"What do you mean?" Victoria asked.

"I think I'm in a panic room." Paige said doubtingly.

"That's beyond bizarre. I guess it might be so if the generator blows up people won't get hurt?" Silvester pointed out. "Wait I think I can hack the cameras inside the room." Paige heard a keyboard clicking and Sly announced a couple of minutes after he could see her.

"I see the switch." Paige informed.

"Okay, go ahead." Silvester instructed. "Slowly though." Paige did as instructed, all the power was shut down and Happy and Sam were able to continue the hacking.

"Whoa guys! We've got company." The mathematic said. " Three guys just came into the building through the sewers."

"Gus you have to get out! They may be the ones that have to start the fire! I'll be dangerous if they see you." Veronica exclaimed hurriedly.

"Okay! Paige see that green switch?" Paige nodded to the camera. "Turn it off. It will let them out." Paige did what he said and heard a swooshing sound through the coms.

"We're out guys!" Sam said. She could hear a relieved Silvester letting out a sigh.

Suddenly a loud gunshot was heard through the building.

"Paige!" Sam was the first to call for her. "Are you okay? Did they see you?" He sounded stressed.

"No, they didn't, I'm still in the room, but it was quite close." She responded in a shushed voice, scared they might find her.

"Paige don't move! They are coming your way!" Sly exclaimed just as she was going to get out.

A nasty smell reached Paige after a minute of hiding, it smelled like fire.

"Sly? I think they have already started the fire!" Paige informed the team.

"Paige close the door! The safe room is made to protect the people inside from an explosion. You'll be fine."

Paige did as instructed and started to close the door, but she stopped midway, worried they might have found her if she did so. She stayed behind the door, hidden from view, watching them.

"This job has turned to shit." A guy in a sky mask said. "It was supposed to be an easy one." He complained. "And to top it all off now we have to take care of this." The other guy nodded and continued their way.

They passed right through Paige's door without seeing her, she supposed they were carrying something heavy from the sound it made being dragged around but couldn't properly seeing what it was.

She breathed out, relieved they were gone.

Suddenly she heard a voice, his voice. A soft whisper, in such a loving voice that made her shake all over.

"I love you Paige."

 **CLIFFHANGER!**

 **Sorry I couldn't resist :P**

 **See you guys next week (Hopefully) and please comment and review! I love to hear your opinions on how the story is going so far :D**


	8. Found

**Ookay people, first of all: PLEASE DON'T HATE ME. This chapter has been a bitch for ovious reasons (you will understand when you finish it) and I have to say that I was in pain every sentence that I wrote. What goes on here was supossed to be off-camera (I repeat myself) the only part that would have actually happened was the part with the letter (you'll know), but my imagination ran wild and the whole fire building mission came to be (I hate myself right now TnT).**

 **I supose I should have put a warning in the summary for this but I didn't want any spoilers. All that I can and will say is that this isn't over, there's a lot more stuff to go (all good stuff I promise) so please don't leave this story now I promise it will get better :S**

 **Lastly, a bit shoutout to the magnificent eltonjon2001 for talking hours on end about the story, giving me some pointers (it really helped and I really appreciated it) and keeping up with me despite all the ambigousness of my answers, lots of love to you 3**

 **Here it is! Be advised: lots of sadness and angst in this chapter!**

Her first instinct was to scream, to yell his name so he would hear her but her body didn't respond to her commands. Sly saw her expression through the cameras.

"Paige, what's wrong?" He asked, concerned for the face she was making. She didn't answer the question, she couldn't.

Paige stood there for a couple of seconds, totally paralyzed. When she came to her senses she ran out of the room, ready to find walter.

"Paige what are you doing?!" Silvester exclaimed. "The fire is getting closer, you have to get into the room and close the door!" He sounded hysteric, but she couldn't care less. Walter was alive, and he was a mere room away.

"Walter…" She murmured. " Walter is here." She said to the team. She heard a group of gasps on her ear. "I have to go find him!" She exclaimed as she went the way the two men had gone.

"Paige don't!" Sam interceded. "You have to get to safety!"

"Sam is right! The fire is almost at you location!" Sly told her.

"But I have to find him." She said absentmindedly.

She didn't have the time to get far though, since a tank of something flammable exploded really close to her, propelling her into the safe room.

"Paige! Are you okay?" Silvester asked, worried. Paige's throat was sore and dry, making her unable to answer him. She nodded into the direction of the camera to make sure he knew that she was okay. He sighed, relieved.

"Okay Paige." He said in a calmed voice despite the circumstances. "You need to close the door. Now."

Encouraged by the whole team she made it to the door gasping for air as it had gotten harder to breath because of the fire. When she was able to totally close it she couldn't hold on anymore.

"Paige!" She heard Sly yell as she lost consciousness.

She opened her eyes and realised she had been staring, embarrassed she looked at the only other place she could, at his lips. They were so close she could feel his breath on her face. Then somehow desire took over them and they kissed, for the first time, with such passion that she felt like flying. They had been discussing how they didn't know for sure that they would work together, but at that second, kissing him, she knew they could definitely work. She felt the exact moment Walter started to pull away, and even though she tried to keep him there, locked on her lips, they ended up separating.

"Okay, yeah, good. Well, we tested that theory." He said in a hurried manner, embarrassed.

"Honestly, I felt nothing." She answered in his same tone. The second she spoke those words she felt a tingling sensation. Oh, she was lying big time. " You?" She asked curious if he felt the same as her.

"Same." His words hurt her, but she took her purse, so it looked like she had intention to leave and put it around her shoulder. He didn't stop there though. "I'm starting to believe that m-my attraction to you is based on the symmetry of your face, which is a vestigial affectation from cavemen. It meant that you were free from genetic malfunctions." He was rambling, she knew it, but there was also a compliment hidden in that sentence as well.

"I guess the assumption of our intense chemistry was off." Paige answered him, following up on his game.  
"It can happen with any hypothesis." He said with his smile falling from his face.  
"But just to be safe, we should prob-"

"Yes, professional colleagues." She interrupted him. She couldn't risk it if he didn't feel the same way as her, as she knew that with another kiss she would be in too deep.  
"See you tomorrow." She continued before waving him goodbye.  
"Okay, tomorrow." He answered, stunned.  
"Good night."  
"Good night."  
When she exited the garage all that she could do was lean on the closed door, exhale and whisper. "Oh, boy."

"Paige!" A yell woke her up from her slumber, making her realise she was hurting all over. Even though she felt sore, she was feeling something she hadn't felt in a really long time and realised she had been dreaming about Walter. She asked herself why she had dreamt of their first kiss.

Sam was outside, he had been calling her for quite some time through the coms. She got up and opened the door, using all her strength, since she could barely keep herself up. When the door moved, he was right there, waiting for her. He took her in his arms and helped her stay straight.

"I need to go, I need to find him." She told him.

"Toby and Happy are already searching the building as they speak, they will find him." Sam answered in a calming manner that somehow made all her worries go away.

They moved, slowly but surely though the building, trying to get out.

"Guys, we have something." Happy said through the coms. "It's… Huuugh! What the hell?!" Happy's exclamation made her see something was wrong, terribly wrong.

Gathering all the strength she had in her she let go of Sam and started running the opposite direction they were going, inside the building again. Sam and Veronica called after her, but she paid no attention to their screams, she was going to find out what was going on.

Happy and Toby were easy enough to find, since there was a clear path that the firefighters had made safe. She saw Happy first, on the doorframe of a room. She went there quick, and as she passed her Toby saw her and yelled.

"Don't let her in Happy! Don't let her see! Get her out." Paige didn't expect his hostility, so she couldn't resist when Happy did take her away. She tried to break free but she didn't let her, she was holding on to her for dear life. After struggling for some time Paige realised she was crying. She had never seen the tough mechanic cry in the three years that they knew each other. At that instant she was able to get an idea about what was going on, but just thinking about it scared her to no end.

Happy lifted her face and looked at her in the eyes. Subconsciously Paige started to shake her head, trying to deny what was going on. Happy tried to talk, but she could tell that the mechanic couldn't face what was to come either. Speechless, all that she could do was nod repeatedly. Seeing Happy cry and nod made her unable to hold her emotions. Happy hugged her, and they cried for a long while.

With their cries resonating through the coms she knew that the whole team was aware of what had happened. Paige could hear in the distance some sobs and little cries, but wasn't able to fully process them.

After some time the girls got up and walked slowly to the exit. Her mother's, Cabe's and Sam's look pained her, but she couldn't care about it enough to separate herself from her own pain and try to help them with theirs. Some paramedic took her away and tried to have her take some tests but she refused profusely. All that she allowed them to do was to look for any serious visible injuries and went on her way to the car. The team stayed out for a little while, probably talking to Silvester through the coms, but she didn't know since she had took hers out the second she had arrived outside.

After discussing for some time they all got in the van they had rented for this job and went on their way. Nobody talked through the whole way back to the garage. They had succeeded in their mission but had lost the heart of the team.

Paige could hear Toby explaining to Ralph what they had found with difficulty, but she wasn't sure, she couldn't fully focus on what was going on, all that she saw was Walter after their first kiss. A part of her believed that he wasn't gone, that he would come in through the garage's door any second, but that didn't happen.

One thing was certain, Toby and Happy had found a body. The problem was that with its state it was difficult to ascertain its identity. Paige still held a tiny hope that it wasn't Walter, but someone else entirely. Homeland had made the autopsy of the body his top priority, and it would be sent to the garage in a couple of days tops. She knew that she would be dying inside until she knew for sure who it was, the uncertainty consuming her every second that passed.

Paige had been sitting on the garage's sofa for all the explanation Toby had given to her son, staring blankly into space.

After some time the talking stopped and realised Ralph was in front of her, he had a look she'd never seen before. He took her hand and helped her up.

"Let's go home mom." He said with a voice that let slip through how much pain he was feeling.

She nodded and said goodbye to the team, but no one was really paying attention to them, everyone dealing with their own grief.

The next days happened in a blurr. She would get up in the morning, get Ralph ready for school, they would have breakfast in silence and she would leave him at school. She then would get to work, gladly they had no missions so it was all dull paperwork that suited her just fine, she was able to not think about the letter that would come in the mail any day now.

It was wednesday, three days had passed when the letter came in the mail. Paige felt like it had been an eternity, but it hadn't been even a week since Toby had found that body. She called the team over, simply because she didn't want to be the one to read the document. When everyone was gathered at her table she passed the envelope to Toby, since he was the doctor of the team. He looked around to be sure that everyone on the team wanted to find out that way and opened the white envelope with trembling hands. He took a deep breath with closed eyes to ready himself, then looked at the autopsy document.

"Ookay, let's see…" he started to read the document only saying pieces of it outloud. "Cause of death- I think we can skip this part." He skipped a couple of pages. "It's all technical stuff so…Three degree burns… We don't need this either." He said when he saw the look Paige was giving him."Ah! Here it is! ...the subject was suspected to be one Walter O'Brien. With the state that the body was found it was difficult to ascertain its identity so a series of tests were made, the one definitive being dental records. Only the last mentioned was conclusive, signaling that the body of the subject is one Walter O'Brien." After Toby had read the last sentence the whole garage froze. They spent almost a full minute with nobody moving an inch until the doctor let the letter fall to the ground. Then they all looked at each other and Paige saw her own pain reflected in one of them. She saw Happy how Happy left and Toby followed her, she was about to cry, she was sure. Silvester went to his desk and started sniffling while he clutched to a blank credit card, maybe from a hotel room, Paige wasn't sure but she didn't ask. he held it with strength, like his life depended on it. Sam went to his own desk and buried his face in his hands, probably trying not to break down. Cabe hadn't moved an inch during the whole ordeal, but Paige could distinguish a lot of hurt and pain on his face even though his expression hadn't changed since he had come into the garage.

Paige herself felt numb, not fully able to process those news, she then proceeded to take the forgotten autopsy report that was on the ground and took a look at it. She didn't understand most of it, so she turned to the last page and stared at the last sentence Toby had said out loud. She traced his name carefully hoping to feel something when touching his name but she felt nothing. She felt like a stranger on her own body like she wasn't really there, like she was watching a TV show with bad reception. She left the document carefully on her table, took her purse and left, she needed to see her son. No one in the garage moved a muscle when she left but she didn't care anyway.

It was quite early to pick Ralph up from school, but Paige didn't care one bit, she deeded to tell him before she wouldn't be able to.

When she got him his teacher asked a couple of questions that she brushed off with a couple of polite answers that she responded absentmindedly. Ralph didn't ask the reason she was there, she was sure he knew.

They went to the supermarket to buy food for the next couple of weeks, since Paige knew she wouldn't do it later. As they shopped they barely spoke to each other, either of them too sad to comment on it.

Afterwards they had dinner in silence as well while they got lost in their own thoughts. Knowing they needed some sort of comfort but Paige wouldn't be able to do so, she asked her son to watch some TV with her. They were sitting on the sofa, watching a kid's TV show that Paige didn't know, snuggling together inside a cozy blanket. Usually that closeness with Ralph always reassured her but at that moment was more like she needed that proximity or she would break down.

"Mom is Walter dead?" Her son asked with a whisper while he watched the television.

"Yes, he is." It was all she could bear to answer. as she spoke she remembered his last words to her.

"I love you Paige." A lonely tear ran across her cheek as she watched the TV.

Walter O'Brien, the love of her life, was dead and he wasn't coming back.

 **Please let me repeat myself before you all decide to murder me in my sleep. I hated this chapter but this is how the story was supposed to go from the beginning :(**

 **Don't get desperate, I promise that good things will happen to the team from now on :D**


	9. Forgiveness

**Hey people I'm back! I guess you all hate me now after the last episode right? THis chapter starts quite grim but it gets better through the end. I wanted to give you guys this chapter as faster as I could but ironically last week was the busiest I had been in the whole month. I couldn't get to the chapter until thursday, and when I did I felt out of touch with Paige's pain, so it was difficult to get into the story again. I also have to say that getting hooked into Teen Wolf (I know I'm six years late :P) wasn't a good idea either.**

 **As always thanks to the amazing eltonjon2001 for his support and everyone that has reviewed the story so far. Interestingly last chapter was the one that got most reviews of all the ones that I have posted.**

 **Also, I'm introducing a new character in this chapter. Originally she didn't exist, but I read a book called The memory of you by Laurie Kellogg (really good ;) and this character came into mind. Her name is Kiara and will become sort of Paige's best friend (except Happy of course)**

 **It's funny that the team barely appears in this chapter ^^' it's due to the fact that at this time Paige doesn't care about anything.**

 **Please enjoy, and don't forget to comment and review! And as always feel free to PM me :)**

 **This happens 2 MONTHS and 3 WEEKS after Walter's disappearance.**

Almost three weeks had gone by since the dreaded letter had come in the mail, two weeks since Paige had shed tears for Walter. Since they had the kind of job that could turn dangerous pretty easily she had thought about what how it would feel to lose Walter, but in her imagination it felt nothing like this. She imagined that it would feel like her father's death, the one that had marked her through her teenage years, but it didn't. She remembered crying everyday for a really long time when she lost her close relative, but she couldn't bring herself to cry for Walter. It wasn't like it didn't hurt, because it hurted like hell, but the pain was so strong that the only way she could get through each day was to dull herself to the point that she felt almost nothing at all. As an EQ expert in Scorpion she knew that she wasn't approaching this right, but she didn't find any other way to do so that it wouldn't kill her.

As for Ralph, he wasn't approaching the situation the same as her. He would go to school everyday with renovated energy, and would try to make things good for them again. Every time anything related to Walter would come up he would talk about it, feeling clearly proud of him, trying to celebrate his life instead of dwelling on his death. His positive attitude had made an impact on the team, Paige could see how the ambient felt lighter when he was there. He tried the same attitude at home but it didn't work on her. She tried to stay positive for Ralph, but she wasn't successful. Every time she felt an milliliter of happiness she would remember her love and feel guilty for trying to keep her life going without him by her side. It had come to a point that her son and her almost never spoke. He had tried to cheer Paige up and she answered with false smiles, to which he picked up right away, which eventually made him stop trying. She hated what was happening to their family, but she didn't know how to stop it, she didn't have any strength left.

On her professional life things had changed as well. Worried about her, the team decided that it was better if she handled things from the base, since one of the last times she had been on the field she had been pretty reckless. Their decision was perfectly okay for her, she didn't feel excited anymore from those kind of missions and she knew she would only endanger the team with her behaviour. It had reached a point where everyone was working through it except her. She felt like her clock had stopped with his death, that everyone was moving on without her. She wanted to go with them but she couldn't, his memory was keeping her from moving on.

Toby had been keeping an eye on Paige for the last couple of days, and she knew that he was going to try to talk to her like the last time. Before it had worked, it had made her talk things through with Ralph, but at that moment she couldn't bear to hear Toby telling her that she had to move on, to move past Walter, to rebuild her life without him. Seeing him coming her way and knowing the kitchen wasn't a viable escape route (from previous experience) she headed for the door. The behaviourist looked stunned standing in the middle of the room, when Paige left the garage and whispered to him that she was going to pick up her son. Him, in retaliation, promised that they would have a talk, she had been lucky that Toby hadn't gathered the courage before Ralph's time to leave school.

She waited for the boy at her car, like always, and she saw how he came out talking enthusiastically with a little girl. They were pretty engrossed with their conversation so paige didn't dare to intrude, she would wait until he was finished talking to her. While she was looking at her son she saw someone move closer, Paige didn't move.

"Um, Hi,I'm Kiara Mason, Hayley's mom. We met at the parent's to school day." The woman said, in a polite and friendly tone while she pointed at the girl that was talking to her son. Paige remembered her, she was a very nice woman that she had casually talked to a couple of times that they had run into each other while picking up their kids.

"Hi, yes, I remember you, it's nice to see you." She forced her waitress attitude, it was the only way for her to sound nice now.

Paige was surprised when she saw how she had picked up on charade and wasn't buying it.

"Look, we're not really friends, but if you need anything I'd be willing to listen, if you want. Here, my info." She gave paige a contact card that said her number and profession, she was a passtisier. Taken a little aback she took her card while the other woman called Hayley. The little girl said goodbye to Ralph and went to her mum. "Sometimes it's easier to talk about your problems with a stranger than with people who are close to you. Have a nice day." She said while she went to her own car.

"Thanks Kiara, you too." She answered, stunned. She was surprised that that woman had offered her help when they barely knew each other, but she was more surprised by the fact the she had felt comfortable enough to talk to her about it while she hadn't felt that way with even her own son.

That night was tense at home, Ralph talked about his friend and what he did at school but afterwards the conversation fell flat. They spent the rest of the time eating in silence until he asked.

"Mum, can I have Walter's letter back?" Paige jumped at that question, like she did every time someone said his name.

"I don't have it anymore." She lied. "I threw it away." It was still in her safe, well kept. She would take it out every couple of days, when she felt he was slipping away from her memory, it helped her remember. She was still clinging to his memory but she didn't want her son to go through the same pain as her.

"I know you have it, mum. I have seen you read it every other night." He answered, nervous.

"Why do you want it honey?" She asked calmly, trying to sound reassuring.

"I think it's better if I have it." He said. "It's hurting you."

"I'm sorry Ralph, but I can't give it to you." She felt that if she let go of the letter Walter's existence would disappear.

"Mum-"

"No Ralph, this conversation is over!" Paige was starting to lose her patience, she didn't want keep talking about it.

"We already lost him mum!" Ralph yelled. Paige couldn't respond, her son almost never yelled.

"He didn't chose to leave us, but you are! I don't want to lose you too!" Now he was crying besides his yelling.

"Ralph,-" He didn't let her finish, he stormed to his room, and feeling they both needed some space Paige didn't pursue him.

That night she didn't have the strength to read the letter that was neatly folded in her hands, so she simply caressed it and left it on her nightstand.

When morning came Ralph's mood hadn't improved one bit. They ate breakfast in silence, and when she left her son for school she feared she had already lost him. She left him at the door with her car, like every morning, but all she got was a small "Bye" when the kid left the vehicle in a hurry. She got out and waited for him to get into the building. When Ralph got to the door Hayley joined him and they entered the building together. Realising what that meant she looked around.

Kiara saw her the same instant she did and got closer to say hello. Paige wanted to ask some advice but she didn't know how, so she simply stayed rooted to the ground saying anything. Kiara was able to see through her.

"Why don't we get some coffee or something?" She asked. Paige answered a very relieved yes and they went to a close diner.

They sat down in an empty table and started to drink their respective beverages. Paige wanted to talk about what was going on but didn't feel totally confident doing so, she didn't know anything about the woman sitting across her.

"My husband died ten years ago." Kiara said suddenly. That statement surprised Paige, too stunned to comment on it.

"Hayley was barely two, and with two other kids it was hard." She looked at Paige in the eyes and she realised why she had felt a connection, they had both lost someone important.

"It has been almost three weeks." She heard herself say before she could stop. Kiara looked at her with no special look, no pity or pain, just understanding.

"We worked together in a pretty dangerous job, so it shouldn't have come as a surprise." She continued.

"But it did. I know what you mean." Kiara said. "My husband was a marine and died in the battlefield." She looked down and Paige could see the pain that came with those memories. "It was his third tour. When he left for the first I was terrified for him but he came back. With the second I had more faith that he would come back to our one year old. And by the third I was certain that he would be there to see Hayley's little sister be born, but he didn't make it. He was in the army and it shouldn't have come as a surprise but it did." She smiled, it was a pained smile.

"We weren't really together, we were just starting, but Ralph already loved him like a father, he fitted perfectly with us." Kiara nodded. "We had been friends for almost three years when it happened and it was the greatest thing that had ever happened to me." She sighed. "I just don't know how to deal with it, Ralph is my everything but he was… my other half. I'm sure he was the love of my life." A small tear fell from her cheek, for the first time, she didn't stop it. "Now I'm losing my son because I can't pick myself up." SHe let a sad laugh escape her mouth. "He scolded me last night. My son did. He's twelve and he's more mature than me." She stared at the half filled tea she had ordered.

"He's a very mature kid for his age." Kiara responded. "With me it was my little sister. When Harold died she started to come at my house to help me with the kids but at the end she took more care of them than me, and when Sarah was born I couldn't even look at her without breaking into tears, so my sister did everything. A month had passed when she sat me down and laid it all down for me. I cried a lot and I was hurt, but when it was over it helped me out a lot. From that point on I was able to pull through all the pain because I knew I had people who cared." After all of her explanation she looked up at Paige and and smiled, she looked broken but fixed at the same time.

"What should I do?" Paige asked.

"Just talk to him, if he's like you have told me he will definitely forgive you." She smiled again and Paige did the same, feeling a lot better.

Suddenly she smelled something that made her want to puke, so she put her hand over her face and waited. A waitress came through with some coffee on her tray.

"Are you okay?" Kiara jumped to her side.

"Y-yes, don't worry, I have had the flu come and go for the past month, when I think I'm cured it comes again." She laughed a little bit through her hand. Kiara's look made her think of something though.

Paige looked at the now far away cup of coffee and realised it was the smell of the beverage that had made her sick. To be sure she ordered one for herself, and when the same waitress put it in front of her Paige almost barfed. SHe tried to hold it but she wasn't able to so she rushed to the bathroom.

While she puked everything she had eaten the last week she could hear Kiara excusing her and leaving. Great, she had abandoned her to puke in solitude. When she was finished she was going to call her and have some words with her. She didn't have to though. When she opened the stall's door Kiara was there, with a pregnancy test on her hand. Paige blinked.

"I went to the nearest supermarket and bought this." She gave it to Paige. Who was to stunned to respond.

"Just take it." Kiara urged her. "Just to be safe." She gently pushed her into the stall again.

Absentmindedly, Paige did as she had been told, and a million images of a kid that looked like her and Walter popped into her mind. When she came out of the toilet she gave it to Kiara who took it and cleaned it in water a little bit and put it in a small, transparent plastic bag.

"There you go." She gave it to Paige, who was still to stunned to answer.

Kiara helped her out of the bathroom and payed for her, since she was still out of it. When they arrived to the parking lot the other woman took Paige by the shoulders and shook her slightly, that made her snap out of it.

"Keep it your purse and do your normal day today, when you think that you are ready to know look at it, but only when you know you are ready, okay?" Paige nodded. "Okay, call me when you have the answer, even if it's not positive 'kay?" Paige nodded again.

"Thank you a lot Kiara." She managed to say.

"All the luck to you Paige, and know that if you need anything I will be there." She answered while she waved goodbye.

Paige arrived at the garage a little later than usual but since the team was coming back from a mission in australia there was no problem. She went to her desk feeling an enormous weight, and the second she left her purse in her chair it reduced greatly. She realised she was terrified of that peed on stick, it was an answer she still wasn't ready to know. She felt stronger and readier to face life since her talk to Kiara but it was still too soon to think of having another kid.

While she completed the paperwork of their last mission Paige kept looking at her purse every five minutes, not curious but terrified of that transparent bag. In the whole day she didn't even take a peek inside her bag, and when the team came through the door she literally jumped out of her seat from the scare. Everyone looked at her and she awkwardly said hello to everyone, each one of them trying to figure out what what going on with her.

When it was time to pick up Ralph she practically jumped off her seat and left as fast as she could, her nerves were killing her.

Waiting for her son she saw Kiara from afar and waved, she did the same. Ralph came out and she could see how the other woman wished her luck. They smiled at each other and said goodbye.

"Ralph I want to talk to you." They were having dinner in silence, with the twelve year old still angry, and Paige gathered all her courage to speak those words into the quiet kitchen.

"What is it mum?" He spoke politely but she could feel the coldness of his words.

"I'm sorry Ralph." When Paige said those words her son looked up from his plate, surprised.

"Why?" He asked.

"I'm sorry for not being with you through all of this, I'm sorry I almost left you." Her emotions were starting to flow out of her but she didn't care.

The kid looked at her in the eyes and ran to her. She had her arms open in a milisecond. Ralph didn't hugh people and she knew that he had done the effort to show her that he forgave her.

"From now on we will get through this together." She spoke softly in his ear. "And this-" She took out Walter's letter that she had had on her pocket and hanged it up on the fridge with a magnet. "-will stay here so we will know every day how much Walter loved us." She saw the enormous smile that came over Ralph's face and she did the same, feeling liberated at last.

Paige accompanied Ralph in his bed until he fell asleep, after talking for what it seemed like hours about what she had missed in his life the last couple of weeks, it had been a lot.

When her son was at last sleeping a sense of calm engulfed her. She went to her bed and looked at her purse. She didn't feel that sensation of dread that she had felt the whole day, she knew that whatever came she and her son could face it, even if it was another kid with them.

Paige took out the plastic bag carefully without looking and set it on her legs. After a deep breath she opened her eyes and looked down. Two pink lines were welcoming her. Her breath hitched and she started to hyperventilate. Not believing it she closed her eyes and looked at it again, getting the same answer as before.

Not being able to stop looking at the stick, she fumbled in her purse and called Kiara, having saved her number beforehand.

"Yes?" Kiara said through the phone.

"Kiara, I'm pregnant."


	10. Life

**Okay guys, I'm so excited to give you this chapter! This one is kind of a happy note after all the sadness that Page has gone through since the beginning of the story, I'm happy she can have a little break.**

 **I'm a little bit sad that the response to the last chapter was nothing compared to 8, but don't worry I will keep going for the ones that are sticking up with me. Just please don't forget to keep telling me what you think, it helps me out a lot and everytime I get a review it encourages me to keep going with this.**

 **A funny thing with this chapter is that today I read the last chapter in the fanfic called Lighting by lookingforthestars (an amazing autor) and it mentions Megan and my chapter does as well ^^ I know it's silly but I laughed a little bit at the coincidence.**

 **Also I forgot to mention: 3x25! Yaaas! I was worried that the whole stranded thing would mess up Waige but I'm glad the writers stuck with that idea, the last scene was lovely 3**

 **This chapter takes place almost 3 MONTHS after Walter's disappearance.**

White. Too much white. Her nerves were killing her and all that she could think about was that the walls were too white. She looked around the reception area of the clinic she was visiting and her eyes laid on the little boy sitting next to her, confused. He looked up at her and they both smiled simultaneously.

The second Paige had told Kiara the news she had urged her to go to the doctor since she had had a stressful first two months of pregnancy. After a week of self-reflection, she had taken her advice but she hadn't been able to do this on her own. Kiara jumped at the opportunity to accompany her, and Paige had made Ralph skip school. It wasn't such a big deal since his grades were the best of the class and missing one day wouldn't change that. She hadn't told the kid what was the reason for skipping, but he didn't seem to mind. By now Ralph had to know but since she wanted the news to be a surprise so she had told him nothing.

"Miss Paige Dineen?" The receptionist called. Hearing her name startled her for some reason. The next second a reassuring hand was on Paige's shoulder, Kiara's hand.

"Let's go." She said softly, knowing she was having a small breakdown. Paige nodded and looked the other way, to her son, who simply took her hand.

"The doctor will be with you shortly, you can get comfortable." The secretary told them before disappearing from the room. Paige looked around and saw a chair that looked like the ones they have at a dentist's office, but weirder. Several posters about pregnancy were posted on the wall, she didn't look at them too much, they made her even more nervous. She had been in this environment before, for Ralph, but it felt like a totally different experience. For her son she was barely an adult with a boyfriend that wouldn't commit, a terribly scared girl. This time around, she was an accomplished adult with a kid of her own but still no one to help her. She decided her last thought was wrong the instant she glanced at Kiara and Ralph getting comfortable on a couple of stools that were on the room. She may not have a man by her side but that didn't mean that she was alone. Kiara had proven to be a good friend and support, she knew her son would become the male role model the baby would need and Scorpion would become his family. After remembering all the love that kid would have she felt a lot calmer.

Suddenly the door opened and a man in a white lab coat entered the room. He looked up from some papers he was holding, he had to be the obstetrician.

"Miss Paige Dineen is it?" He smiled to look cordial. "My name is Jackson Cummings and I'll be your appointed doctor. So tell me, what do we have here?" He asked her, looking around at her and her companions.

"That's my son Ralph and my friend Kiara, I thought I needed some support in all this." Paige answered the doctor, nervous.

Following his instructions she got in the chair while he asked some questions.

"When was your last period?"

"A couple of months ago."

"And this is your first visit?" He asked, surprised. "You didn't find it weird enough that you wouldn't check?" He didn't sound condescending, just curious.

"I have been under a lot of stress this past months, I simply thought that was it." It was all that she could answer.

"Okay, let's check first if it's positive."

They did the necessary tests while Ralph and Kiara waited. In the end he announced that she was indeed pregnant and congratulated her. She felt relieved when she heard those words, she already loved the baby too much to be just a broken pregnancy test.

"Now do you want to get to it?" The doctor asked when she was still awed by the fact that she was really having a baby.

Paige looked up, not understanding his question. He signaled to a machine next to him. An ultrasound machine.

"Su-sure." Paige positioned herself, pretty nervous with the whole ordeal.

Ralph got up to stand next to her and Kiara followed suit, leaving her and her son a little of space.

The gel applied to her belly was cold, it made her wince a little bit. She took Ralph's hand and he held it tight, he was as nervous as her.

Paige tried to relax and closed her eyes, wishing there was no problem, but too scared to look.

Suddenly a sound filled the room. It was a loud beautiful thump. She opened her eyes the second she heard it letting out a little laugh while a couple of tears streamed down her face.

Paige looked at her son and saw the face of wonder he was making, she probably had the same expression on her, just like Kiara that was on the background.

"That's the baby's heartbeat." The doctor said. "It sounds fine and healthy." When he spoke those words she couldn't help but exhale loudly from relief. "Here it is." He said after turning the screen her way so she could see the monitor.

Ralph jumped a bit forward, excited to see his new sibling while he smiled cheek to cheek. His face of wonder when he saw the black and white footage was undescriptible. After watching her son's reaction she turned her face around and saw the most beautiful sight. It looked like a bean with little arms and legs. After the wonderment she couldn't help but try to see if there was any problem with the baby.

"For what I have seen there's no problem with this little fellow." The doctor said. "But I would ask you to try to relax for the remaining of your pregnancy or it could result in problems. Take care of yourself, Paige." He looked at her, worried.

"I will, thanks doctor." She responded, while she was still looking at the monitor. If it depended on her she would never stop looking at that screen, seeing her baby, Walter's baby.

"Do you want to know the sex of the baby or you'll wait?" Dr. Cummings asked, startling her. She had forgotten the sex of the baby could be seen from the fourteenth week.

Paige looked at her son and knew that he needed to know, uncertainty was something he had never liked. She nodded to the man.

"Well, in that case, congratulations, you're having a little girl." Ralph almost jumped out of excitement and Kiara was smiling broadly.

"Congrats, Paige." She said to her while she gave her a little pat on the shoulder.

Too amazed, Paige couldn't answer, she simply smiled at her friend.

A girl, she was having a little girl, Ralph was going to have a little sister. At that instant a girl with brown eyes and hair popped into her mind, and she felt an overwhelming wave of love for that weird-looking bean that was growing inside of her.

"I will give you a picture of the ultrasound to go." The doctor said, interrupting her vision of Walter with a little girl in his arms and Ralph next to him, smiling.

"Oh! Thanks a lot, that would be wonderful." She answered when she came to her senses.

Paige cleaned herself up while Kiara and Ralph waited for her on the reception area, she could hear them talking about what they had found out today. When she finished Kiara went back to work and Paige decided she had to tell her family about the news, not just her mother but the whole family, Scorpion. She didn't even ask Ralph if he wanted to come, she knew he did.

During the whole ride the twelve year old couldn't stop staring at the picture they had given them when they left the clinic.

"Are you excited about having a little sister Ralph?" Paige asked him while she drove.

"I can't believe it." He honestly answered. "It's going to be a very gratifying experience." He sounded awestruck. All that Paige could do was laugh happily at his reaction, she almost never saw Ralph act that way, he looked more like a kid at that instant than last week, when he looked like the adult in their relationship. A wave of relief and happiness took over her, she couldn't stop smiling.

They arrived at the garage and she saw how Ralph hid the picture in his backpack, he probably would wait until she had told them the news to show it around the garage.

When they got in a couple of faces looked up, but the rest didn't even bother, everyone had been in their own world since the tragedy. One of the faces that looked at the liason and her son was Silvester.

"Paige, Ralph, what are you doing here?" He asked curious and scared at the same time. "Aren't you supposed to be in school?" The second question was addressed to the kid. Ralph looked at Paige for permission and she nodded at him. Everyone in the garage was paying attention at them by now.

"We went to the doctor." He simply said. Sly looked up at Paige worried out of his damn mind and then back at the kid.

"What!? What's wrong?" He started to panic a little bit so Paige decided to take over.

"Nothing! Sly, nothing is wrong, calm down." The mathematic sighed, relieved. "We went to the doctor for me." That statement made everyone curious about what she was talking about, so they moved a bit closer. She saw that Silvester was still worried so she decided that it was time to tell the news.

"I'm pregnant." A couple of seconds passed with no one moving even an inch, and she could see their acceptance process, their faces when they realised what those news meant. Toby jumped out of his seat loudly and went to Paige, Happy looked at her and smiled. Sly simply stayed rooted in his spot to amazed to comment, Sam smiled and congratulated her just like Cabe. Their handler hugged her tightly and she felt like she was hugging Walter's dad and in some sense, she was. Her mom did the same as the man and gave her a little kiss on her forehead.

"We have to pick the name!" Toby shouted after all the congratulations had been given. He took out the whiteboard before anyone could comment. "Do you know the sex of the baby?" He looked at Paige.

"It's a girl."Ralph answered before she had the chance.

"But you would need to be at least two months and a half into your pregnancy to know…" He trailed off, thinking. She knew he had figured it out when she saw the mischievous grin that erupted on his face. "Oh! Know I understand why you weren't worried when you came in the day Sam first came to Scorpion." Paige blushed a little bit, she couldn't help it. Before the behaviourist could keep on going and started to talk about stuff that was not age appropriate for her son she interrupted.

"Yes, it happened that night." Toby made the gesture to ask something but she interrupted him again knowing what he was going to ask. "And yes, the baby's father is Walter." She looked at Ralph, he was looking at her right back. "She's a Scorpion baby." She smiled while she caressed her belly. The last statement was mostly aimed at her and her boy, and as she predicted, it made him smile at her.

After that Ralph showed the picture to everyone and Toby hanged it up in the board. Right after everyone started to blurt out girl names, getting really excited about the whole ordeal. Ralph and Paige laughed at the sight of Cabe yelling girl's names. The sad thing was that Paige had already chosen the name she wanted for her daughter, she knew the name she would give at the little thing the instant she knew her gender. She wanted to tell everyone but all the excitement and yelling of names didn't help her to get heard. Finally she yelled to shut them.

"Guys! Guys listen up please!" Everyone stopped where they stood, like stones. "I have already chosen a name for the baby." She said more calmly. She heard Toby protesting.

"That's not fair. You didn't even tell us that you and Walter were together." He looked indignant at the news she was giving the team. She knew he wasn't really mad though. "Well, let's see then if your name it's better than mine." He handed her the permanent marker he had used to write everyone's input on the issue.

Paige did as she was told and wrote in big letters the name she had decided to give to the little thing. While she wrote it she realised it was truly the perfect name for her. After she wrote it and turned around she saw how Silvester teared up a little bit and the rest of the team simply nodded and smiled.

"Yea, true, I can't argue with that choice, it's perfect." The doctor said while he patted Paige gently on the back.

She smiled and looked at the future big brother.

"It's great mum, it will fit her perfectly." He said while he got closer and looked at the name. He looked amazed by all that was going on and Paige loved it.

In big black letters there was a name written on the board, and it stayed there for weeks, next to the baby's picture.

The board read Megan O'Brien-Dineen.

 **I'm so happy to tell you guys the sex and name of the baby :)**

 **The name comes (obiously) from Walter's sister and I had the name even before I fathomed the idea of this fanfic. I always thought that if Walter had a daughter he would name her after his late sister whom he loved so much and was such a great character.**

 **I'm just so excited about all this XD From now on we will get to know Sam a little bit better, since he almost hasn't appeared (not my initial intention) and Paige will still try to figure out how Walter died (she's not going to let it go, she's a sttuborn gal :P)**

 **Thanks again for sticking with me!**


	11. Coming clean

**Hey guys, here's another chapter :) This one it's a little bit shorter than the last ones, sorry. For some reason it was hard to write the second part of this, maybe because it was a drastic change of pace from the first part.**

 **In the first part of this chapter we meet a new character that you weren't supposed to meet 'all the last 5 chapters, but since Paige's life is going to enter kind of a calm atmosphere for quite a while I wanted to keep the tension and mystery going ^^**

 **You will also meet the mastermind behind everything, I can't wait for your comments when you find out :P I wrote that part the next day the chapter 10 was out, I was so excited! :D**

Guest chapter 9 . May 30

Even those I knew she would name the baby Meagan, I still teared up reading it. The fact that the team didn't know she and Water had gotten together and that the baby was his was special. It was almost like al of them had a little piece of him back with them again. Now, I hope will all my heart that Walter isn't really dead. Hoping Sam might know something about where he really is of have some clue but can't tell anyone because they could all be in danger if he did. Walter had to have faked his death. The story is totaled The Code so there has to be more to it and he fact that Paige isn't going to give up finding out what happens to him and why, leads me to believe she's going to figure it out and find him. I'm surprised the rest of the team has just accepted his death and haven't tried putting the pieces together already. So what if they had dental records proving it was him. Why did he disappear? Where did he go? Who was he running from? Why was he in that building? I am loving this story. You're doing an amazing job. Can't wait to read more.

 **I wanted to adress this review, but since it's a guest I can't simply dress you by name ^^' Actually the team hasn't truly accepted his death, but at the moment they have no reason to keep on going, and since they have lost Walter a really short time ago, their pain it's to great to just simply start looking for clues saying that he's alive. Everyone is hurting a lot, but since the story only revolves around paige it may seem they don't. I will try to make the team a more inclusive part of the pic from now on (excluding this chapter) Thanks a lot for time writing you amazing review, it really made me happy!**

 **Thanks as well to MetalKyria, who has been following and reviewing every chapter that comes out for a little while.**

 **Like I said in the beginning, Paige's life it's going to enter a calm phase, so there isn't going to be a lot going on in terms of action and similar, like the rest of the team, I feel that they need a breather after everything, but don't worry, things will come back eventually, and they will find out who the new OC is and what is going on, but all in due time.**

 **Another thing, in the last chapters I have been saying how long has it been sine Walter's disappearance, since it's important, but I'll simply put the date at the beginning of each chapter instead. I will update previous chapters and change this.**

 **Well, after all my rambling, enjoy!**

 _March 31, 2017_

The room was dark, with only the light of a computer screen for a source of light. He kept on typing, his hands never stopping, he had to be done before his boss came back. It was a risky plan but needed to be able to finish everything that had happened, going back years, almost decades. He was so done with it and wanted to finish it once and for all. Part of his plan was to keep in contact with the problem-solving team Scorpion and the only person he had been able to establish regular contact with and not be suspected was Veronica Dineen. He had been feeding her information about his boss's plans, and her team was supposed to help him take the big one out without their knowledge. The con woman had asked him a couple of times to reveal himself, at least to the team, since it would make her work easier as a connection between them. He didn't explain but he was sure she understood and after realising he would never do it before finishing the job she had stopped asking. He had sworn her to secrecy though, being her and his boss the only people who knew his true identity. Even the boss's other minions had no idea who he was and only addressed him by his codename, the only thing he had been able to chose when he got into this job.

He kept on going with his secret work, searching for any more information of the team of geniuses, information needed for this plan to work. In times like this he missed his former life, his family and friends but he couldn't go back, at least not yet. He had abandoned everything when he joined his current endeavour and had made sure they were going to be alright, but it still hurt like hell to think about them.

A message from Veronica popped into his screen, which made him stop thinking about things he would probably never have again. He looked at it and almost fell of his chair. In his screen the message read that Paige Dineen, her daughter, was pregnant. After readjusting his glasses and getting back onto his desk he started typing like a maniac, trying to find out what was that about. In the end he found an official document from a doctor Cummings, an obi/gyn clinic. It said that Paige Dineen was expecting a little girl. Curious he kept reading. There were no complications in the pregnancy except high stress levels that could easily be fixed. Now confused, he found out she was almost three months pregnant. After reading such statement he thought about what it meant. The baby had to be from his now ex-boyfriend Tim Armstrong… Or maybe it wasn't. He did some calculations and realised that the only possible father had to be Walter O'brien. That was bad, like really bad.

He messaged Veronica back and told her that what he had found out.

-So what now?- Appeared on the screen.

-We have to do something about it, if he finds out it will lead to a lot of problems.- He typed back.

-You think so? Maybe he won't do anything, he has already gotten what he wants.-

-He still isn't totally satisfied, if he finds out about the baby he will mess with them just to pass the time, I know it.-

-Megan.-

-What?- He knew that name, it was Walter's sister who died from MS and wife of Sylvester Dodd. What did she had to do with anything?

-Her name is Megan O'Brien-Dinnen. She told us yesterday.-

-It's a good name.- It was all that he thought to say.

-I thought you would have more of a reaction, since you know everything of the team and stuff, but I guess that after everything that has happened I shouldn't have expected something more extravagant.-

-I have to go, the boss will come back in a little bit and I have to finish the weekly report, I have an idea of how to fix this though.-

-We can talk about it in our next scheduled meeting, good luck R.-

-Good luck to you too V.-

He closed the chat and took a second to digest the news, amazing and great news, but worrisome. That would make things a lot more complicated. He was happy for the liason and her son, they deserved some sort of happy ending, the way that the Brooklyn operation had gone was a disaster, even though the boss couldn't be more pleased. He basked in Scorpion's pain, and thought that plan without even telling him, which had created a strife between them but R had had no choice to let it go or his revenge wouldn't work.

The fact that Paige Dineen had decided to name her daughter after Megan showed how good a person she was. A warm feeling grew inside of him, before he shook his head to remind himself that personal feelings had no place in this job, they would only complicate things. He did smile a little bit though.

He started to type to again, writing his report as fast as he could, in less than fifteen minutes his boss would be back and he had to have finished by then.

When he was done he inserted the document into the coding program and wrote the keyword. Just as he hit enter to start the coding of the document he heard the sound of the main door opening, he was cutting it close. The door to his office opened just as he had closed the program and had put on the work he was supposed to be doing.

Since the room was dark all that he could see was the silhouette of the person who had opened the door, but he knew perfectly who he was.

"How is it going? Are you finished?" He said happily. While he talked he entered the room and left the door open, what made the chamber fill with light.

"I'm almost done, I just need max half an hour and it will be done." He answered just as Mark Collins's face smiled at him.

"Fantastic, let's go take a break." Collins said as he took the blond man's shoulder and both left the now again dark room.

* * *

I was a calm day in the garage, Paige was looking for the next job among their list of offers since there was no official missions waiting for the team. Everyone had disappeared some time ago, just leaving Sam and Paige to work calmly, saying they were going to grab lunch. They had crossed their gaze a couple of times, but neither of them had been able to start a conversation, it was an awkward situation. Paige had accepted Sam into the team but she still felt that he had profited from Walter's death and it bothered her a little bit. The rest of the team had made him feel totally welcome, but she couldn't bring herself to be totally okay with the situation, even though she had been the one to propose it. Since her son and Sam had gotten quite close she felt more comfortable around him, but there was still a part of her that couldn't fully be glad for his presence. She was sure that Sam had realised her stance in his presence in Scorpion and was handling quite well, trying to not make Paige feel contrived with the situation they had in their hands.

"Paige." Someone was calling her name, it was a soothing voice. Startled, she looked up, only to see Sam standing next to her desk, she hadn't realised he had left his own seat.

"Paige can I talk to you for a moment?" She blinked rapidly, and after a second she answered him.

"Um, s-sure, no problem." Dumbfounded, she signaled a chair that was close to her table. He took it and sat down. He looked contrived and nervous.

"What's wrong? Is there any problem?" She asked, feeling a little bit worried.

"Um..No, no! There isn't anything especially wrong, it's just that…" He trailed of. "I just think that I needed to talk to you." He paused and looked her in the eyes. "About Walter." At the mention of his name she closed off, he knew were he was going and she wasn't ready yet to have this conversation with him.

"No, I don't think it necessary, I'm sure it can wait." She brushed him off and started to get up to leave, but suddenly his hand was over hers and didn't let her leave.

"Wait, please don't." She stopped dead in her tracks and shifted her gaze at their joined hands, not knowing what to feel about it. When he realised that he was holding hands with her he lifted his own to set Paige free from his grasp. "S-sorry, I didn't mean to." He looked her back and she had to stifle a laugh. He was so embarrassed, she could easily tell.

"Okay, tell me." She sat back down, realising that she would never be ready to have that talk.

"I-I just wanted to tell you that I understand, I know you don't like me being there." He said, nervous.

"That's not true, I do like you Sam." She replied as a reflex.

"Yes, I know, but I also know that a part of you hates me." He showed a sad smile. "For what happened to Walter." He looked down, Paige could see how he was hurting. At that second she realised something. She knew that everyone on the time had had a hard time to be able to accept Walter's disappearance and death, but she had no clue how it had affected the newest addition to the team. Everyone had faced his death differently, and even though they had gotten accustomed to the idea of Walter not being there, she could see their hurt and sadness every day, because she felt that pain as well.

With Sam she had been cordial and friendly, and she had found out that they could have ended up being friends in other circumstances, but because of the events that

had brought them together she couldn't totally allow herself to be friends with him, so it had been a half-assed friendship until now. Surprised by her own realisation Paige didn't answer, so Sam spoke again to get her attention.

"Paige? Are you okay?" She looked up at him and saw a totally different person, a man who had lost a dear friend of his. "You were totally out. Is there any problem?" He asked concerned.

"No, no, there's no problem." She answered while giving him a light smile. "It's just that I have realised a lot of things about you, Sam." She paused, giving him a reassuring pat on the hand. "Things I had missed because of my own pain." Realising what she meant he smiled back, relieved.

"Can you tell me about you and Walter?" She asked, he looked at her, surprised. "I have been curious about your relationship since the moment you told me you were his friend." She said, realising that knowing him better would help her with the current situation.

"W-well, you see…" He stuttered a little bit, suddenly embarrassed. "I met him at my previous work, I was an analyst for a private company, and we were faced with some unknown problems with our tech. We tried our best but we weren't able to totally figure out what was going on, so they got Walter to consult with us." He showed a little smile, definitely remembering how they met. "He came in and within three days he had the issue tackled." He laughed a little bit, Paige did as well. "We were the ones that fixed the problem, but walter found out what was going on while no one could, so I became interested in him." She looked back at Paige. "It all came to him so naturally… I was amazed. After meeting him outside of work a couple of times I realised he wasn't like anyone else I had met before, and when he told me his story I found it even more amazing." He paused and stared off into space, reminiscing those times. "We started to meet regularly, and he would ask me advice on EQ matters and I would ask him about coding and similar, it was a win-win relationship. Without knowing it we became friends along the way." His face suddenly changed, it was all serious now. "When he told me he had to leave he practically begged me to take the loft." He paused, needing to stay calm. Paige listened every word as her life depended on it. "He told me there was some stuff he couldn't leave on its own and needed me to take care of it. At first I supposed it was material stuff, like his research and such, but after meeting you guys I realised he was talking about you." Paige gasped. "He was worried about what would happen to the team if he was gone, he didn't want to see it fall apart." He finished after a long sigh.

They both stayed rooted into their positions for at least several minutes, feeling to drained from the conversation to move. Paige felt like something inside her settled and realised her hate for Sam was baseless. After some time the tension in the air dissipated and a calm environment ensued.

The rest of the guys came back at that moment and broke the moment, making the garage busy again. Paige and Sam got up from their seats almost at the same time.

"Thanks for telling me." Paige said.

"Thanks to you for listening." Sam smiled back.

A calm and warm feeling grew inside of Paige, and for once she felt totally at peace with herself.


	12. Dreams

**Okay, I'm sorry I haven't updated in a month, but I went to the Annecy animation festival (I'm studying to be a 3D modeler) and I didn't have any time to finish this, and the next two weeks have been crazy, being the last stretch until my college year wrapped up. Now I'm free again, so I will try to keep the one chapter per week quota. Sorry again guys.**

 **This chapter has a great deal of SEXUAL content, so be aware. I had an M rating and I hadn't made use of it, so I let my imagination run wild ^^I needed some beautiful smut in this to get through the story.**

 **This happens 6 MONTHS after Walter's disappearance (it's a pretty good skip) so don't get lost people ;)**

 **Again, sorry for my absence this past month and I hope you like this chapter! Review and PM me people, it always gets me pumped up! :D**

 _September 4, 2017_

The first thing she felt was pressure on her lips. Immediately after heat and desire engulfed her. After a couple of seconds of one of the greatest kisses of her life, the pressure disappeared. She whimpered at the loss of contact and opened her eyes, slowly. Gorgeous brown eyes welcomed her. She didn't hesitate, she took the man's face in her hands and kissed him again. His groan of pleasure was enough to send her over the edge.

After kissing the life out of him she realised they were both naked. In the kitchen, her kitchen. The first thought that popped into her mind then was that that was an odd place to be naked in. She didn't have a lot of time to ponder on that thought though, since she saw the man's body. He was, in one word, hot. He didn't have a perfect built body, like her usual type, but he wasn't out of shape either. He wasn't an athlete, that was for sure, she could tell that all his muscles were totally natural, but he had an amazing body nonetheless. Sadly she wasn't able to fully appreciate it since she was sitting on top of him. She considered getting up for a second and admire but she easily discarded that idea, she was enjoying their make out session far too much to stop.

He started to roam his hands around her body while they were still kissing, and when one of his hands reached her breast and massaged her nipple she felt a jolt of electricity that almost made her come. Gasping for air she sighed.

"Walter…" She said with all the strength she had to talk. After hearing her voice his mouth trailer her neck and collarbone, making her shiver.

She was making out naked in her kitchen with Walter, Walter O'Brien. The realisation of what that meant made the situation a hundred times hotter than it already was, if it was in any way possible. She took his head again and kissed him with renovated energy, while both of their hands on each other sended waves of pleasure in both of them.

Gradually she felt her temperature rising above normal limits, it was like she had a fire burning inside of her and it had been released at last, she felt totally liberated. It was a fantastic and new sensation she had never felt with any of the men she had been with before, this was it.

Suddenly she realised there was a fantastic pressure on her lower half and after looking at his eyes she comprehended his arousal was kissing on her entrance. Feeling a surge of boldness she started to move slightly, in a rhythmic motion, caressing him with her opening.

"Paige…" He let out. An amazingly sexy grunt followed her name, he was unable to say any more.

Walter started to meet her movements, moving with her totally in sync. He started to kiss her all over again, feeling hotter with every brush they had between them. Their jagged breaths was all the sound paige could hear, making her even more aroused at the situation.

Not being able to hold on anymore, Paige got up and straddled him, what got them even closer than what they were before.

"Oh god" Walter let out with a grunt as she started to hump him again. She could see him losing himself in her, trying desperately to maintain control with all his might.

After some time she needed him inside of her, so she pressed herself on him harder, what only made him stifle another groan.

"Walter, please." She pleaded, hoping he would fulfill her need. He looked at her in the eyes and she could see he understood her since he felt the same urgency.

"Paige, we need…" She didn't let him finish, a kiss stopping him. At that moment she didn't care about what would happen, she needed him now. "I have to go to the store to get more…" He tried again after finishing the kiss.

"No way." She responded quickly.

"But…" Another kiss stopped him from talking any more.

"Walter, please." She said between kisses. "I need you know. I will take the morning after pill afterwards." She looked at him straight in the eyes and saw his last ounce of restraint snap in front of her eyes.

After that it was like a beast had been freed. He feasted on her, kissing and touching every inch of her body, and she totally loved it. It was a new side of him she had never seen before, a hungry and desperate Walter. Following his movements and letting him lead she separated her legs more, making her feel him even more. He realised her actions, and not being able to wait any more he took her legs and lowered her on top of him.

Paige and Walter gasped at the same time. It wasn't the first time they had done that tonight, the soreness between her legs and the way he felt inside of her now were sure to tell her, but it felt like they hadn't done that before. She vaguely recalled starting this on the bed, but the inexperience of them as a couple had hindered their lovemaking. Now they knew each other's bodies, they knew how to please the other. The lack of rubber also made her feel a totally new sensation.

Paige looked at the man in front of her, cheeks flushed and ragged breath, and realised for a hundredth time how much she loved him.

"I love you." It was all that she could say. They had said that to each other countless times by now, but she felt like she needed to say it countless more or it wouldn't match her actual love for him.

"...M-me too, Paige." He answered, still adjusting to the amazing sensation of being united again. "I love you." He looked at her straight in the eye and smiled. It was a smile with no regrets, with only love and adoration, and Paige felt like melting at the same time she felt she had grown wings and was flying away. All the she could do was smile back.

She moved a little bit and they both remembered their position. They resumed kissing while Paige slowly got up and lowered herself on Walter. He let her lead for a while, but when they started to pick up the pace he couldn't help it and took control. He started pumping into her with such strength she thought she would pass out. Feeling he couldn't fully make love to her in their position, he took her and lowered her on the kitchen counter while never stopping his movements. Paige felt like every thrust would send her to heaven, making her closer to her release. Getting even more intense, she tried to hold on to anything, the kitchen pantry, the counter, but she couldn't hold herself. She took Walter's neck and lowered him to her lips, holding onto him for dear life while they continued their lovemaking for a while. Finally he started hitting her spot and she couldn't help it. She screamed, letting her head fall back, which he interpreted as an invitation to her neck that he gladly took. With his member pumping inside of her and his lips on her collarbone she couldn't stop it, she came, hard.

The sensation of Paige cumming around him was godly, and even though he tried to stop it, he was soon to follow her. He groaned and thrusted hard one last time before letting it out.

The sensation of Walter's seed inside of her was so great that it made her come all over again just from the pleasure of him releasing himself on her.

Hard and shallow breaths filled the room, and Paige looked up at him. His hair was all over the place, having her grip onto it for part of their session. His cheeks were flushed and his eyes were filled with desire. She kissed him, slowly, while he got out of her. She missed him instantly, so she let out a small whimper before she could help it. He looked at her and she saw that he felt exactly the same as her, they weren't done.

Paige and Walter kissed slowly for a while, before she felt something cold on her back. Startled she turned around and saw the Baked alaska they had been eating before they had started the hanky-panky. I wasn't frozen any more, just cold. She couldn't help but let out a small laugh while she took the plate with the spoons still in it and put it in the freezer again. She turned back to Walter and took him to her room again, planning to have her way with him while they kissed.

* * *

She opened her eyes, suddenly, feeling the loss of his lips on her. She gasped, still feeling him inside her and rolled over to the side to see him. He wasn't there. After a second she realised what was going on, she had a wet dream. At her age and she had a wet dream about Walter. Well, it wasn't actually a dream, since it was exactly the way that had happened, but the result was the same that any dream of that kind. She had woken up hot and bothered and completely alone.

The alarm sounded and Paige slowly got up, groaning as she held her belly, she was already at the end of her second term, and was showing quite a bit already. After getting up from the bed, a more difficult feat every day, she went to the bathroom and had a cold shower wanting to erase the tingling sensation that ran through her hot skin. After 5 minutes she felt it was enough, and since she didn't want to freeze the baby to death she finished her shower with warm water. While the water streamed from the shower cap she looked at herself. Her belly was bigger everyday and she could feel her moving depending on the day, she was a fighter, just like his daddy. That last thought made her smile a little bit, she couldn't wait to see what traits of Walter did she have.

She got out of the bathroom and dressed herself. After fighting with her new pants for good five minutes she was able to finally go have breakfast, she was starving. She went to Ralph's room first to see if he was awake and seeing that he was she got breakfast ready.

"Good morning mom." He said when he reached the kitchen with his backpack in tow.

"Good morning sweetie." Paige answered when he got seated to eat. They had breakfast calmly, since she had managed to be ready faster than usual. The baby made things a little bit harder for her and she had to take double time to do things like getting dressed or showering, but she had grown accustomed to it and was able to improve her time steadily. Being seated with her son on the table made her think of the time she was pregnant with him but it had been a completely different experience. Aside from the fact that she wasn't a scared teenager anymore and she had a steady job, her symptoms had been completely different so far. With Ralph she had had morning sickness nonstop during the pregnancy, but with Megan she didn't. The headache and overall pain had gone away, and she felt almost no effects at all from the pregnancy, aside from her swollen feet and breasts that were very sensitive, especially after the dream she had just had this morning.

When they finished they went to drop Ralph to school, talking all the way there. Since their little bump Paige had tried really hard to not fall back to the same wagon again. There had been days she had felt Walter's absence more than the others, especially if it had something to do with the baby. Those nights Ralph would sleep with her, since he felt his mentor's absence as much as she did, and that closeness helped them get on with their lives.

She arrived at the garage when everyone was getting ready for their next mission to Boston, Paige felt the rush and stress that went through the room. Since she was pregnant she was out of commission, but she would do anything she could to help the team from home. They had been debating who would go for quite some time, since the team needed had to be compact and small. At first Silvester had been the first to pull out, he didn't exactly jump at the idea to go to a research facility that could hold potentially killer virus in its midst, but after reviewing the mission they realised they would need Sly's expertise on the field, so Sam had decided to stay to support the team from the hub, just as Paige. If it had been like it was before between them she would have been worried, but in the last months they had been able to become quite close friends, and they had a great time together. Ralph was totally on board with Sam which was a plus.

Paige went to her desk and started reviewing the papers of their case, they were heading into the Massachusetts general Hospital, where it was suspected that someone was stealing research on biomedical medicine, and it could end up being a catastrophe if it were to fall into the wrong hands. They were to infiltrate the lab and find out who it was and fix the software so it wouldn't happen again.

Suddenly she felt a presence in front of her desk, wich made her look up, startled. Surprised to see Happy and Toby holding hands in such a formal took her aback for a second.

"What's up you guys? Any problems with the mission?" She asked to see what they wanted. Toby spoke first.

"Um, no, that's not it." The shrink looked nervous, like he was about to pass out. Happy let out an exasperated sigh and continued for him.

"We want to get married in 3 months." Paige blinked, not expecting to hear that at all.

"Oooookay." She answered, feeling a pang of sadness and hurt at Walter's absence, he would have loved to be there and probably be Toby's best man. The couple saw the way her face fell, the way it always did when she thought about walter.

"Paige." Toby talked and she looked up at him. "The thing is that we wanted him to be part of it so much we had unconsciously putted the option of getting married on the bench indefinitely and seeing how everything had been running along we thought that it was best if we finally did it, since he's not coming back." Paige could see the second Toby's face became haunted by the ghost of one of his best friends, all that his face showed was pain and hurt.

"We simply wanted you to know first." Happy continued, seeing her fiancee wouldn't be able to. "After everything that we have gone through, and specially you we think we need this. It would be an honor if we had your blessing." Paige blinked, surprised, not expecting such a formal tone with Happy. After swallowing hard she nodded, smiling.

"I know that you feel awkward about it since Walter's death, but it will do us good, we need some happiness around here, and you're the most indicated for that to happen." She smiled again.

Suddenly Toby went around her desk and hugged her, surprising her yet again. She hugged him back and got up before Happy hugged her as well. It was a little weird and awkward, but she appreciated the gesture immensely.

"Thanks for telling me first guys, it would be an honor to be able to see you get married after all that has happened." She saw how their face softened at her declaration and realised that without her assurance they would have never get on with it, out of respect to his lost friend.

"What's happening?" Cabe asked. Paige looked around and realised that their little hugging session had take everyone in the garage by surprise and were now looking at them intently.

"Happy and Toby had decided that their wedding will be in three months." Paige answered, knowing they would never say anything, too nervous to talk.

Everyone took their turns congratulating them and giving them a hug, and she saw that a wedding was exactly what they needed to move on with their lives.

After everyone finished getting ready they took their plane to Boston, and since they wouldn't land until 6 hours later they could go home to have a little nap.

Paige went home and the way the room was lit reminded her of the dream she had that morning. It had been such a great experience. A little kick startled her, and she realised that probably that had been the moment Megan had been conceived. With all that had happened after Walter left she had completely forgotten about getting the pill until a day had passed, and she hadn't bothered checking what was the maximum waiting time for those kinds of things, since she had wanted to get finished with it as fast a possible.

Remembering her dream she opened her freezer and almost cried on the spot. Sitting like it had been just yesterday the day she put it in was the half eaten plate of baked alaska, frozen, waiting to be finished. She carefully took it out, and after putting it on the kitchen table she wasn't able to touch the spoons that had been frozen into it. They were two, and without touching Walter's she took hers and carefully ate the dessert while a lone tear fell from her cheek.


	13. Discrepancies

**It's a bird? It's a plane? No, it's Rose!**

 **Saying this chapter was overdue it's an understatement, the last one came 2 years ago and I can honestly say I'm really sorry about it, but you know, real life and blablabla. I had this chapter started when I posted the last one, but I finished it last night, so it's easy to say that it was hard to write. After the show ended in such a way you could say mi hype died a little bit, but seeing that you still leave comments on my story urging me to continue has really brought me back to the story.**

 **I will not promise you one chapter per week or month, but I will try to upload this as regularly as possible, I'm really excited to finish it and tell you guys the truth about all the misteries in the story! I can say that Carol, your review came exactly at the right time, so thank you for reminding me of this story XD**

 **Hope you enjoy and review! The comments give me life!**

 _September 5, 2017_

Paige woke up restless and uncomfortable. She could easily tell she had been crying in her sleep, not a surprise after what she had found the previous night in her fridge. Today was one of those days that she felt positively pregnant, with her feet swollen and sore all over. She didn't want to get up at all, preferring to sleep it off in the comfort of her bed, but she knew she was going to be needed in little time for the mission, so she slowly got up, letting a grunt escape her mouth.

When she got to the garage Sam was already set up with all the equipment, waiting for her.

"How are things, Sam?" She asked the moment she entered the building.

"Everything is in order." He answered calmly with a smile on his lips. "They're almost at the site."

"Good, then let's-"

"Is Paige there?" Silvester's panicked voice interrupted. From the face Sam was making she could deduce that there wasn't any immediate threat, it was just him panicking over the mission.

"Yes, I'm here Sly." She answered with a smile on her lips.

It warmed her heart to think that, even though a lot had changed in the last months, there were things that would stay the same in her life, like Sly's panic to problematic situations.

Hearing some sort of commotion on the background Paige asked.

"Silvester is everything okay over there?" She frowned to Sam that looked at her raising his shoulders, letting her know that he was as clueless as her.

"Happy is disagreeing strongly with our liason over here." He responded.

Paige sighed, she was starting to fear that this mission would be a disaster.

Looking at Sam she spoke into the mic.

"Let me talk to her Sly." A couple of shuffling noises were heard while Sly told her that she needed to put her coms on.

"What?" Happy's annoyed answered Paige.

"What is the problem Happy?" She asked, in a soft manner as to calm the genius a little bit. She heard and angry puff on her side.

"This condescending twat is insulting my abilities, that's what's happening."

"Happy this twat, as you call him is the only person qualified to help you guys out, and since I'm not there you need to work with him to be able to finish this mission." She answered her.

"I-"

"If you feel about to snap just remember the reason we are doing this." She let what she said sink in. "Aside from the obvious one, saving innocent people."

The air turned tense and somber as Happy answered.

"Walter." After a second she said barely a whisper. "I know."

"We need this to keep this going, you know that."

"Yes, I do." Paige could feel the genius had calmed down significantly. "Thanks for the reminder."

"She smiled!" Silvester exclaimed, reminding everyone that it was an open conversation.

"And...It's gone." Toby answered him.

"Thanks Paige, we will talk when we get on the site." The psychiatrist continued.

"We'll be in contact." Sam answered from the other side.

The comms went silent and Paige and Sam looked at each other, still feeling the mood of the conversation. Every time they talked about it tension filled the air, being far from over.

She had only said that to spurr Happy on but the liason really felt that way, the only thing she had left from Walter was Scorpion, she didn't want to see it disintegrate because he left, she needed it to be able to move on.

"You are right, you know." Sam spoke suddenly, startling her. Looking at her he continued.

"We need to keep this going for him, I think this is the only thing keeping everyone from having a meltdown." She saw a sad smile forming on his lips.

"Well it's what brought me to him." She answered, stroking her belly. "I'm not going to see it fall apart, I can't. Besides.." She hesitated, she hadn't said this to anyone. "We need to keep the relationship with Homeland intact if we want them to keep his case open."

"You still think…?" He said with surprise in his eyes.

"Yes, undoubtedly." She answered him with no hesitation whatsoever.

"Paige, you saw the body, everyone did." Sam continued, now more unsettled than before.

She looked at him, straight in the eye.

"Sam, It's the only way to keep myself sane, even if what you say it's true, I know that there's always going to be a small part of me that believes that he's still out there and that someday he will come back to me." She sighed. "I know it's crazy, but it's the only thing that it's keeping me here, the hope that he will see our daughter someday. That I will see his smile again."

"Paige the tests were conclusive, it was him." He almost yelled.

"I won't believe that. Never!" She retorted. "I can't." The last word ended up being a whisper she said to herself, more than him.

Paige saw in his face how he calmed down.

"I'm sorry." He apologised, confusing Paige. "I can't share your gut Paige." Sam continued, looking miserable. "If I start to believe that he's still alive I know I will lose my mind." He paused. "It was already hard enough losing him once, I can't keep the hope living."

The liason looked at him closely, he looked sad and defeated.

"No, I'm sorry." Her anger had subsided as well. "I understand what I'm doing it's not the best way to deal with this, but it's the only way I know how."

He smiled again at her and she returned the gesture, even though there were still traces of the tension that was there seconds before.

"How are you doing?" Sam asked, obviously trying to lighten the mood a little bit.

"Good." She said as she continued to smile. "I feel like a bloated whale and I move at half the speed I was before, but I'm good."

"Good." He repeated after her, now smiling in a more relaxed manner.

After a minute of silence to relax themselves, Paige and Sam each got a chair and sat in front of the TV and the equipment to be able to assist in any trouble that the team faced.

* * *

The mission was coming along smoothly. The boss was beyond excited, ready to torture the team of geniuses the second they came into the building. They had been monitoring them since they had started the hacking into the hospital's database, knowing that Homeland security would send Scorpion to fix the issue. R was nervous though, he had been working on this for as long as he could remember and this job would provide with the answers he had been searching for all this time.

Collins had told him the objective of the mission, but after a secret thorough research, he wasn't as committed to the cause as his boss. Sure, with the info Collins wanted great things could be done, but after getting to know him, R didn't fully trust him for some reason. When he had found information about the reason he was on the run he understood everything, he couldn't let Collins finish his research no matter what. But to accomplish that he had to do as he did until the suitable moment.

"How is it going Rhino?" Collins voice asked from the doorframe, he had just arrived.

"Everything is going smoothly, we just need to steal something else to mask the missing research." R answered, while he frantically typed his computer, surrounded by top tier hackers that were hired to assist him.

"Huh, good thing you're here Rhino, none of these _people_ couldn't have done it so fast." He said people with a weird timber in his voice, his disdain for non-geniuses was palpable.

"Let's see…" Mark got closer to R's computer to choose what they would be taking. "Oh! Tuberculosis is a great choice! The government would get really nervous if somebody tried to replicate the virus!" He was getting really excited. R looked at him through an indifferent mask.

"Ok, no problem, I'll get started right away on that."He answered him as he returned to typing. Seeing R was concentrated Collins left, satisfied.

Rhino hated this, having to trap the Scorpion team into such a trap, but he needed Collins full trust in him if he ever wanted to bring him down, and this mission was the beginning of the end, if it worked he could be free from his clutches and go back to the life he had lost.

He looked at the info of the team that was on the way and sighed, Collins was really a beast sending Silvester Dodd into the lion's den. Everyone on the team was going to have a hard time, but he knew that the mathematician was likely going to have a meltdown as he was known for being a germaphobe, and being in an environment that was surrounded by research on deadly viruses would really test him, Collins was really after this guys.

After approximately and hour he was almost done with his work.

"Sir, the team has arrived at the location!" The hacker that was tracking them revealed.

"Good. Find the boss and we will start the mission." The guy left in a hurry to search for him immediately after R spoke.

"So, are we set?" Collins voice spoke after a couple of minutes. "Put the security cameras on, I want to watch everything." He smiled in a sinister way. The guy that was with him rushed to his computer and did as he was told.

"Man, this is going to be great." He continued calmly as he approached the TV to see the feed of the geniuses entering the hospital more closely. "R?"

"In a couple of minutes I will be set to start the extraction." He answered his previous question.

"Great, we will wait until they are inside the mainframe of the network, I want to catch them with no escape route." He answered him.

Everyone had stopped doing their work and were looking intently at the television as R worked out the lask kinks, when he was done he watched the screen as well, waiting for the perfect moment.


End file.
